New Blood AS: Winds of Change
by Shikkoku Kiyoshi
Summary: Months after the King of Fighters '99 tournament, Raven, Krysten, Zyon and Xion are back to their lives as normal teens. Between two undercover agents posing as students, a mysterious young woman and just dealing with their own friends, the journey of the SSC has only just begun.
1. Restart

Disclaimer: I don't own King of Fighters. They are the property of SNKP, and I'm just using them for my own pleasure.

Hello and welcome to the next chapter of the SSC saga. If you are wondering about the title, the A.S. basically stands for "Another Story", since this, as I said before, basically a side story. As a warning, this story is going to be pretty damn OC heavy, so if that's not your thing, I suggest looking elsewhere. Other than that, there's nothing else really all that noteworthy, so…

* * *

King of Fighters – New Blood A.S.: Winds of Change

Chapter 1: Restart

* * *

"There. That should be enough." Anya Rosenstein sighed happily. She placed the last item in her suitcase and quickly closed it. Halfway done with her task of packing her things up, Anya sat down on her messy bed and stared at the ceiling. "Another opportunity lost..."

Anya had been holed up at her current residence for the past two days, and every single minute of those two days was spent sulking, packing or being bored. She didn't like being cooped up in this dilapidated mess that someone had the gall to call a house for that amount of time, but that was the only thing she could do after what happened just a few days ago, so Anya just bore through it.

Anya yawned softly, running her hands through her messy and tangled blonde hair a few times before getting up and going to the kitchen to peek at what she had to eat. The fridge was close to empty, partly out of not having much money, but also due to the fact that there was only a stove and an oven in the room and neither of them worked. Anya just ate out most of the time, anyway.

She took out a large slice of cake that she brought right before the incident. Smiling somewhat, she returned to the bed and sat down on it in a cross legged position and started to ponder on where she will go this time around.

_I don't think I can do this for another three years._ Anya pondered as she started to eat. _I think I need to find someplace where I can be little more…inconspicuous. _

When Anya started wandering around Europe a little more than three years ago, had assumed that these small, out-of-the-way towns wouldn't be a big deal, but it was starting to become obvious that she was seen as an unwelcome guest everywhere she went to. Despite her good intentions and kindness, the people around her always acted wary around her, as if she was a demon that could turn on them at a moments notice.

_Such is the price to pay for being 'blessed' with this extraordinary power, I suppose._ Anya thought bitterly. She knew that was the thing that kept people away. Actually, it wasn't so much her 'powers 'as it was the stigma that came with them, as her father-the person who had 'given' these powers to her-hadn't exactly been the most magnanimous of people. Despite her constant attempts to separate herself from his actions, she often found herself suffering because of them.

_He has so many enemies. What was he doing before he found me?_ As Anya continued to eat her cake, her mind drifted towards the day her 'father' left her behind to meet his destiny at that tournament and never returned. Then something hit her.

"Japan. The place my father went to the day he left me behind…Maybe there…."

Anya had been to that country once before, and from what she remembered, it had some of the biggest cities she has ever seen. So big, in fact, that she probably wouldn't stick out very much, if at all. It was a perfect plan.

Anya quickly placed the half eaten cake on the old dresser next to her bed and pulled open the shelf. She took out a wallet and checked to see how much cash she had left with her. The answer wasn't what she expected it to be, unfortunately.

_Eh? This is all I have? It's more than plenty for a ticket, but… _As she repeatedly counted her remaining funds, Anya internally scolded herself for blowing money on Game Boy games and junk food during her travels. _Well, if I can find someplace cheap, I might have enough to find some place to stay for about a week or two, but after that, I'll probably be back on the streets._

Anya frowned at the thought of potentially being homeless, but her mind was already made up. She couldn't stay here any longer; her patience was starting to dim. So she got to work, and in the matter of an hour, she had packed up her remaining stuff and was just about to leave the house, when the door knocked.

_This is a bad time for any visit. But I suppose it would be only right._ Anya slowly opened the door. Outside, there was a group of angry looking townspeople. They weren't exactly carrying pitchforks and torches, but it sure did look like she was being run out of town.

"Oh my, how may I help you?" She clasped her hands and gave them a big smile that completely clashed with the severity of the situation she was a part of. "Don't tell me that you came all this way to see me off? How sweet."

Her happy tone statement confused the townspeople. "You're leaving now? We've been dealing with you all of this time, and now you want to run off?" One person said.

"That's about the size of it. Why? Who are you guys anyway?"

"We're representing the people of this town. They've been looking to rid you of your wicked aura for a long time now, but they chose us since the others didn't want any blood on their hands."

"Wicked…aura?'" She was surprised people could even sense that in this town.

"Sorry, but we can't let you just run off now. Besides the fact that we're getting some good money for this, they don't want you spreading your evil message to another defenseless town."

Anya's smile disappeared quickly. She could feel that sense of distain that she sometimes had towards other people building inside her; a few remnants left of what she was taught by him...

_No! Do not let these people get to you._ She reassured herself repeatedly, but something in Anya's mind was screaming for their blood._ If I kill them, then I will be no better than they are.._

Once one of the men took out a weapon of shorts, Anya was at her limit. In a flash, she was in front of that man with the weapon, and she had a death grip on the offending hand.

"Let me make something clear to you." She mustered up whatever patience she had left to speak to them in an calm voice. "I'm very aware about how much they want me to leave, and I'm willing to disappear if that is so. You'll never be seeing me again in this town. But while I can assure you I'm not evil, if you continue any further with whatever you intend to do, I'll be more than glad to show you how malicious I can truly be." She squeezed the arm harder to emphasize her point.

Everybody was silent. An unseasonably gentle breeze started to blow through the scene as the men contemplated their next actions.

"You know what; we'll just tell them that we took care of you. They won't care how it happened as long as you're gone. Just ease off of us, alright? We're not that willing to risk our lives just to get rid of one person."

Anya's smile instantly returned. She let go of the thug with the weapon. "Thank you very much. It is very much appreciated." She bowed deeply. She heard the mean mumbling as they started to leave themselves, but paid them no mind. She was very lucky that they had enough common sense to lay off. She didn't want a repeat of the last time someone tested her willpower.

_That's the end of that particular chapter of my life._ Anya hummed to herself as she started on her journey to the airport. _This wind….where will it take me next?_

* * *

"Isn't this great, Vio? We're back in Japan for the first time in a while." Haru said excitedly as they walked down the busy streets of their new neighborhood. "It's been so long, I wonder if they still sell that cup ramen that I used to eat…"

"Focus, Haru. We're supposed to contact Luka the moment we reach our new place, so we can't dilly-dally around." Vio didn't seem to be as interested as her friend, but that was mostly because she was exhausted from the trip and her only concern at that moment was how soft her bed would be.

"Come on, don't be such a downer. I'm just happy to be home after such a long time."

"Excuse me for not wandering around in a sea of nostalgia like you, but my memories of this place is not as pleasant as yours."

Haru's shoulder's slumped in frustration; he knew very well what Vio was referring, and he just let out a small noise. "Please don't let that get you down. We're not 'those' kids anymore; we're posing as completely differentliving the average teenager's life. Sleeping, going to school, blowing money on arcade machines and junk food, all of that stuff." A thought ran through his head, "Oh, we have to go to Neo-Geo Land soon! Haven't been there in a good while."

"We will, I promise, but for now, we need to get going. Don't you want to know what kind of place we've been set up with?"

"Knowing Luka, it'll either be a motel room or a bug infested mess. I don't have high hopes for anything good."

"Tell me about that. If I'm staying at another place that forces me to boil water on a stove just to take a hot bath, I'm going to hurt him."

A few minutes later they arrived at the place that would be their home for the next few months. It was actually not that bad; a nice, normal looking two story house in the middle of the city.

"Why are they assigning us to a two story house when there are going to be two people living in it?"

"Who cares? Let's get in already." They entered the house, and were astonished by what they saw. It was absolutely, positively….the most ordinary house they've ever seen. Nothing about it was very special or unique, but compared to some of their older hideouts (seedy motel rooms and old, run down houses that still had crime scene tape in the rooms), it was heaven.

"Home sweet home for the next 5 or so months." Vio took a look around the place. "But we still need to call Luka."

"For what? He knows that we'll be alright."

"We have our orders, Haru." Vio grabbed a cordless phone that was on the wall and started to dial. After a few minutes of ringing, someone finally picked up. "This is Violeta Nakahara; I need you to connect me to Luka from the RD department…"

A few minutes after that, someone else picked up.

"This is the International House of Genetics and Cloning. If you want to call someone about getting yourself cloned, please press 1 now. If you are interested in nanotechnology being forcibly put into your body, press 2, otherwise hold on…"

"Luka, sir, we know it's you." Vio stated with irritation; Luka did that to them almost every time they called him. "We've arrived at our new residence."

"Already? I was assuming you'd be out doing who knows what around town before you actually went to the house. Anyway, I hope you found it to your liking."

"It's great, but it's a little big for just the two of us, don't you think?"

"Hmm. I was trying to cut you a break this time around considering the scope of your mission, but if that's not good enough, then there's a pretty cheap hotel a few miles uptown…"

"NO!" Vio blurted out unexpectedly, "I-I mean, it's fine. We don't have a problem with this place."

"I knew you would answer that way. Now let's get the business part over with." Luka continued. "As you might have read, your mission is to observe and report the activities of the group known only as the Shin Sekia Chitsujo. You are to observe them, and try and get a good idea about who they are and why they were able to crash our little coming out party 6 months ago."

"We already know that much. Give us some specifics."

"Specifics? Okay then, As you probably already know, you're undercover. As such, we have enrolled you in school. I've already informed them about your arrival and other small things. There shouldn't be any question about your identities or your past, so you can just start going to classes and all that good stuff."

"You not actually making us go to school, right?" The young agent said, "I mean, we're agents of NESTS and…"

"That doesn't matter, Violeta. You need to get close to the kids, and you can't do that if you're kicked out due to poor grades, now can you?" Luka's voice turned a bit more serious. "We're certainly aren't providing the kind of education that most kids your age should be getting. Just work with me about this okay?"

Vio sighed. "Alright, alright. I promise we'll do our best."

"Good, so you'll be starting school in a few days. I'm not sure about your schedule, but I tried to make sure you have at least a few classes with two of the people in question. We want you to befriend the group, and get an idea of how they act in real life. We would also be pleased if you got some source of their skills, but that shouldn't be of high importance."

"Okay. Now tell us who we're specifically targeting in this mission."

"No? Well then, let me pull up some files." Luka could be heard muttering to himself for a minute or so as he worked on the computer. "Okay, their names are as follows: Raven Kirishima, Krysten Kirishima, Zyon Matou Kasanari, Xion Shinlon. Raven and Krysten are 16 and 15 respectively; they live by themselves, but officially, they are adopted, and have been for a while. Zyon also lives alone with his sister, Tera Tohsaka, but the reason for their situation is much sketchier. Xion's background, to be honest, is one big mystery. We have no real records that go back farther than about three years."

"If there are four of them, why did you only send two of us?"

"Because it's less hassle, for one thing. But the main reason is because one of the more…shadier groups in Japan we've affiliated ourselves with has a member that is friends with one of them and is in constant contact with Xion and Zyon. In exchange for some…items and funds, she'll tell us what she knows about them. You can focus more on the brothers. Do you have all of that so far?"

"Yes sir…"

"Alright, as for expenses, here's the deal: We left you an account. Every few days we'll wire you enough money to pay bills, groceries and whatever, with enough to spend on whatever stuff you want to buy for yourselves. I've taken the liberty of sending your stuff from here to your residence, and it should be there by tomorrow. Please try and be more frugal then you're usually are with money. I don't want to hear that you can't call me"

"Whatever. Anything else?"

"Hmmm….The only other thing is that I need you to report on your findings every so often, but other than that, nothing important."

"What about our aliases? We aren't going to school as _ourselves_ are we?"

"Of course you are." Luka stated simply.

"What?" Vio's exclamation startled Haru out of his seat. "So we're using our real names? Why?"

"It's a matter of you being lucky enough not to need one. This is a different area than where you two used to live, and most of that, er, unpleasantness you suffered before you first joined this group has been long forgotten by now. I know there's some bitterness, but please put that aside for the sake of the mission."

Vio could tell that Luka was trying his hardest to assure her that everything would be okay. Relenting, she let out a rather loud groan. "Fine. If you say so, then I have no choice but to agree."

"Thank goodness." Luka sighed in relief; he knew that decision could have lead to a disaster. "Listen, if during any time, the mission starts to get compromised, or you start stressing out, or just can't continue, just let me know, and I'll have you back here as soon as possible, even if I have to do it myself." Luka continued, "The higher ups are sending me on another meaningless mission, but I'll try and keep in touch. Sakari is still a bit out of it, but he should be up and normal in a few days or so, and I'm sure he'll be calling you and bitching about me soon."

"Okay. We'll see you soon. Take care of yourself; you don't need any more wounds on your body."

She could hear Luka groan from the other end. "Tell me about it. Okay then, I'll talk to you in a couple of days. Stay safe."

Vio laid the receiver down, slightly frustrated but reassured. She then proceeded to relay all the information to her friend. "Haru, did you get all of that?"

"Yeah. Sounds like we're in for a long ride, huh?"

Vio just gave him a look. "I'm going to find our rooms and take me a long nap." She was too tired to deal with anything else right now. "We'll get something to eat later, but for now, I need a break..."

Haru just nodded absentmindedly as he watched her friend stagger up the stairs. He knew that Vio was a bit stressed; she needed some time to get her head sorted. Haru went to the open the door, and leaned against the doorway as he took in the sight of his new place.

_So we're going to be students again? This should be interesting.  
_

* * *

Shikkoku: Ah yes, and now we begin with this 'intermission' of the NB saga. So what should you expect? For one thing, a deeper look into the background of the SSC. You'll learn more about their personalities and reveal some things about their pasts. Also, appearances by both OCs and KOF characters.

It's a pretty brief chapter, so I don't have any notes as I usually do, so…

Next Chapter: The SSC go on with their lives as before, but things are about to get a lot more…complicated.

Until Next Time. Sayonara.


	2. Spring Storm

Disclaimer: King of Fighters is the property of SNKPlaymore, who are currently taking as long to release KOFXIII on consoles as I take to write a chapter...

Yes, It's me again. After a good number of months wallowing in a sea of screwy work schedules and failed tests, I've returned to give you the new chapter of...

* * *

New Blood: Winds of Change

Chapter 2: Spring Storm

* * *

_It had been about five months. Five months since the group of four kids known as the Shin Sekai Chitsujo—or the SSC for short—took a chance and entered the King of Fighter's tournament. Five months since they lost a close battle with Terry Bogard and his team. Five months since they crashed and ruined Krizalid's plan to take over the world with clones of Kyo Kusanagi. All of that was such a short time ago, so why did it seem like it was ages?_

_They came home after all was done and it seemed as if nothing had really happened. But they weren't going to complain; after all, the whole idea was to try and test their skills and have a bit of fun along the way, not to try and use the tournament to become five-minute celebrities. The SSC got what they wanted, and for the moment they went on with their normal lives._

* * *

Krysten yawned as he got up early in the morning. It took a few moments for him to remember that he had chose to stay up and finish the last few hours of the RPG on his recently acquired Sega Dreamcast. By time the beat the game, however, he was too tired to climb up the stairs and fell asleep on the couch instead. Luckily for him it was more comfortable than he expected, and he didn't wake up incredibly sore, as he predicted.

A light mewing sound came from the kitchen as Krysten slowly got to his feet. A light grey cat walked into the room. "Morning, Version 1." Version 1 was a cat that Raven had unknowingly brought home from their trip, and had made itself at home rather quickly. Her name was merely a placeholder while they thought of something better.

"Are you hungry already?" He knelt down to stroke the kitty on his back. "Well, wait a bit while I try and get my brother to wake up already." He got a meow in response. Krysten went up the stairs and went into the room he shared with his brother, who was currently knocked out on the bed.

The younger Kirishima gave his brother a hard nudge. "Okay sleepyhead, time to get up." Krysten said as he shook Raven as hard as he could.

"Alright, alright, stop shoving." He waved his brother off and sat up. "What's going on? Did you accidentally erase your game saves again? Because that's what I got you that extra memory card for…"

"We need to get to class." Krysten interrupted, dropping a schoolbag on Raven's lap for emphasis. "I had to wake you before you ended up making us late."

"Damn, I don't really feel like it today…" Raven cracked his neck as he started to get up. "Maybe we should just skip…."

"The hell we are. You and I both know that we can't keep doing that. We promised Hokuto we'd keep up with our schoolwork if she let us live on our own, and we've barely kept our end of the bargain."

"I suppose we did tell her that. And I certainly don't want to go back to living over there again, especially with all of those students that are constantly wandering around the place." He picked up the books that had been scattered throughout his room. "Why the hell did she want to be an instructor anyway? I'm her best student, what's the point of teaching anyone else?"

"She was training you to help you control your powers. But she's the head of the family now, and she wanted to do something worthwhile with her life, especially after what happened. You respect that, don't you?" Krysten realized he was getting off track. "Anyway, whatever the case, we need to start getting ready. I'm gonna get V-1 something to eat."

Raven got out of the bed. "You're going to have to give him a real name sooner or later." He said before he went inside the bathroom. Glancing at the mirror, he duly noted the scar over his eye and then turned on the shower.

* * *

Haru and Vio patiently sat outside while they awaited the teacher. It was going to be their first day at a public school in a long time, and they still had no idea how the students were going to react. For the meantime, they casually talked to try and calm down.

"Have you heard from anyone back at HQ yet?" Vio said as she idly started swinging her legs.

"Nope. Luka's been busy, Sakari's is still comatose on the bed and Irena probably hasn't heard the news yet."

"This is just a strange change of pace. To think, only a month ago we were with Luka negotiating with some small country for use of our technology."

"Yeah, that was fun. Except at the end when the deal fell through and they started shooting at us."

"Heh, don't remind me." She smiled grimly before changing the subject. "How do you think these students are going to treat us? Will they be friendly to us? What if they start asking us a whole lot of personal questions?"

"Oh, don't worry. These are teenagers like us; the only thing they care about are your hobbies, what bands you like, and probably if you dye your hair. I doubt it'll get any personal than that. Besides, I'm there if you have any trouble."

Vio just blinked for a few seconds before taking a deep breath to calm her frazzled nerves. She absent-mindedly brushed off the black and white floral skirt she was wearing to distract her mind. In a quick attempt to calm her down, Haru reached out and gave her a quick hug. He knew that Vio needed him by her side for the time being or else she would mentally collapse before the day was even over.

"Are you feeling better now?" He said in a slight whisper when he let go. Vio smiled and nodded. "Good. I don't want you to freak out on me quite yet. It wouldn't help us if you fainted in front of the class, right?"

The door opened at that moment and the teacher poked his head out to let the two know that they could come in. They quickly walked into a class of relatively accepting looking students. "Mr. Tsuyomi, Ms. Nakahara, why don't you introduce yourself."

"Hello, my name is Haru Tsuyomi. I'm 16 years old. I was born in Kyoto, and I lived there for most of my life before moving here. My father is an engineer and works for a very advanced company in the field of…er, engineering."

"Uh, yes…My name is Violeta Nakahara, but you can just call me Vio. I'm 15.6 years old and I'm very pleased to meet you. There's nothing all that interesting about me whatsoever."

"Come on, Vio, at least tell them what you're interested in?" Haru nudged her a bit and Vio turned slightly red.

"Uh..er…Well, I like martial arts, sleeping and Sonic the Hedgehog games…"

"Did you say you liked fighting?" One of the students jumped in abruptly. Vio gave her friend a look, but he just shrugged.

"Er…yes. The both of us practice martial arts. It's something we do as a hobby." She continued.

"What kind?"

"Various styles. Kung this, Tae Kwon that. We don't limit ourselves to any one specific style." Haru inserted, "You guys sure seem interested in fighting…"

"We have some fighters in our school too!" One of the girls said. "Kara-sempai and Krysten-san!"

"Kara-sempai?" A slightly confused look formed on their faces.

"Actually, his name is Raven, but a lot of the younger students here like to call him Kara-sempai." Another student added. "He and Krysten fought in some kind of secret underground fighting tournament a few months ago."

_So they're actually bragging to these kids about what they did? That little stunt of theirs set our organization back months!_ Vio thought bitterly. The two agents would have to see how much of their story they actually let out to the public.

"Where are these two fighters anyway?" Haru asked. The teacher shook his head in response

"Late. They always either come real early for breakfast or get here late. I'm sure they'll be storming in here nosily as usual in a few…" He was interrupted by the sound of the door opening as Raven and Krysten came walking in.

"Excuse us, Sensei. Sorry for being late again." Raven gave a casual apology. "There was a line at the store, and I wanted to eat some dorayaki…"

"You wouldn't have to wait if you would actually cook some breakfast instead of insisting on picking something up every other day." Krysten muttered.

"Alright, tomorrow, we'll crash Zyon's house early and he can cook for both of us. He won't mind right?" Raven finally noticed the two students standing in front of them.

"Er…yes. I would like for you to meet Haru Tsuyomi and Violeta Nakahara." The teacher said, moving aside so the brother's could get a better look at the two.

"Yo! What's up!" Haru said enthusiastically.

"It's a pleasure to see you." Vio politely bowed. "If I may ask, what are your names?"

"My name is Raven, and this is my brother Krysten…" He turned and noticed the uneasy look his brother had on his face. "Krysten, say something!" He whispered.

"I-I-It's a pleasure to meet you." Krysten struggled a bit getting those words out.

"Please forgive him. He's a bit shy around people he doesn't know." Raven gave his brother a sympathetic look. "He'll warm up to you guys quickly, so don't worry about that."

"Oh, okay?" Vio said. The idea that these two were supposed to be talented martial-artists seemed a bit too absurd to her, but then again, she knew that weirder things had happened in the KOF tournament. "Please don't be too wary around us. We're friendly."

"O-Okay…"

"Well, now that we got our introductions out of the way; let's get class started, okay?" The teacher said. Everybody went to their seats.

* * *

Luka stared at the somewhat comatose young man lying on the bed. "Oi, Sakari. You still sleep?" He waved a hand in front of the boy's face. "Well, his vitals are still normal; I suppose he's still knocked out from all of the drugs I used before the procedure."

"Osu, you think he'll be okay?" The brown haired girl standing next to him looked up into his face and started to poke him. "You said he was supposed to wake up a few days ago…"

"That was just an early estimate, you don't really know how these things work till it happens. But enough about that…" Luka took the girl and sat her on another table. She looked at him with inquisitive eyes, but her expression had a sense of emptiness to it. "Now, do you know what today is?" He finally asked her.

"Uh, my first assassination?" Her words were said more casually than a girl her age should be speaking.

"That's right. You've finally reached the point that they want to do more on the field testing with you. So you're going out on your first assignment."

"So no more testing?" The girl sounded hopeful, and Luka couldn't help but smile at that.

"If all goes well, most likely they won't need to give you anymore tests. While you do need a bit more work on controlling your powers, you've already surpassed your predecessors." He started to go through a drawer full of medical equipment. "Now we need to know if that combat practice we've been putting you through has worked out for us. Does that sound good?" The girl nodded. "Right now, however, I need to check your blood first."

Luka noted the girl's wide-eyed response as the room started to get a bit chilly. "Come on now. This is just standard procedure."

Her red eyes fell at his words. "Fine…"

She held out an arm as Luka got out a vial and a needle. "Don't worry, this will be short." She flinched a bit when he inserted the needle in her skin, in fact, the girl went ahead with it as if she had been having this done to her for years. In some ways, she was right.

It didn't take Luka long to get the blood he needed for the tests. "There. Quick and easy, as usual." He quickly placed a light blue bandage on the spot. "How are you feeling, my dear girl?" He laid a hand on the top of her head.

"Okay, I guess." She rubbed the bandage on her arm. "Can I have some candy now?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, sure. You've earned it." He took a lollipop out of one of the pockets of his lab coat, which the girl took in earnest. "Now, where are your keepers at?"

"They're right behind you."

"Huh?" He turned around to see the two women assigned to take care of the girl that was currently in his room, Foxy and Diana. "So, are you here to pick her up, because she's ready if you need her."

"Actually, I need to speak with you about something important." Foxy said before she turned to the girl that was busy licking her lollipop. "Kula, sweetie, go with Diana so she can help you get ready for your mission."

The girl smiled as she hopped off the bed and bounded to Diana. "Bye bye, Luka!"

The scientist casually waved as she and Diana left the room. "So then, Foxy, since we have barely been able to see each other recently, what do you need to tell me?" He closed the door and went back to the bed where Sakari lay.

"I heard you got another mission as well. The higher-ups certainly aren't treating you well as of late." Foxy sat down in a nearby chair.

"Such is the life of an operative: kill, kill, write report about my killing and send it to upper management, go back to work, then get another order to go out and kill more people." There was a hint of bitterness in his voice as he checked the comatose boy's vitals. "Honestly, I should probably tell them I need to spend more time working on this Anti-K' nonsense they threw on my lap at the last second, but enough of my whining. What's going on?"

"It's a bit complex, to be honest. To put it plainly, we've gotten word that one of our lower ranked agents has just defected from the organization, along with several other people."

Luka's head fell at the news. It was another aftermath of the failure of six months ago; several people had left the organization, either to join with some other group that he heard was slowly amassing men or jus because they figured that things could only get worse after their grand plan went down in (literal) flames.

"Normally it's not too much trouble for us to deal with, but intelligence just informed me that the rouge agents are headed towards the town your two operatives are currently located at."

The scientist nearly dropped his instruments in shock. "W-what? Why in the hell is he going there? Damn it, I need to go tell Kirou…"

"H-hey! Calm down!" Foxy grabbed him by the wrist before he could run out of the room. "He's not looking for Tsuyomi and Nakahara. What he's after involves some young woman who is wanted in response to an incident in a small town in Europe."

Luka took a deep breath as he sorted everything out. "So this is just some kind of mercenary work? And what incident are you referring to?"

"A few months ago, there was some kind of storm that blew through that town and caused a lot of destruction to it. I don't have the exact amount, but it's around 2.4 million dollars in damage." "However, several people have claimed that the storm wasn't natural, but was caused by a mysterious young woman who had arrived in town a few weeks earlier." Foxy stated, "I think you know where I'm headed."

"So this girl must have some mystical powers. Maybe we should try to look into her as well. Getting her to join NESTS might be beneficial." Luka thought aloud. "Especially if she's cute."

Foxy gave him a bitter look. "Considering the damage she reportedly did to that one town, I would think this organization has suffered through enough crap over the past few months."

"You're probably right." He rolled down his sleeve and started fiddling with some old bandages on his arm. "So, do you think our defector is after her powers?"

"Could be, or it could be an issue of gaining some money off of all of this. The main concern to us is that he's too close to our undercover operatives, and if he finds out about that, they could be in some serious trouble."

Luka rolled his sleeve back up. "Don't be so worried. Haru and Violeta are more than capable of beating his ass all over town."

"They're still kids, Luka. We all know how skilled they are, but that doesn't mean they can do everything on their own. You of all people should be concerned about their well-being. You're their superior after all." She stood up and looked at him.

"Do not worry my dear fox, I'm not ignoring anything. I have complete faith in them. Besides, I already have a plan in mind for how to deal with our..." He walked over to her and placed his hands on her shoulders. "Let me take care of this. YOU, on the other hand, need to get ready to go with Kula and Diana."

"….Alright, Luka. I'll leave thing up to your own devices, as usual." Foxy gave him a small smile. "I certainly hope you know what you're doing. You know how Kula feels about those two kids. Our relationship notwithstanding, if you do anything that gets her upset, Diana and I will not hesitate to make you our new practice dummy for fencing practice."

"Heh heh, weeeelllll, we wouldn't want that. Half of my body already looks like a damn mummy." Luka smiled and kissed her on the cheek. "Be careful. I owe you dinner when you get back."

"I'm well aware of that." As Foxy left, Luka grabbed a sheet of paper off of one of the tables filled with instruments. It was his mission report.

_It never ends, does it?_ Luka scrolled through the report to try and see when exactly it would end. He looked at the prone form lying on the bed. He was looking forward to seeing him react to his new nanotechnology, but his duty to the cartel came first._Sakari. I'll have Kirou wake you up tomorrow. It looks as if I'm off to shed blood once again._

* * *

After a few hours, it was time for them to go to lunch. And while Raven and Krysten would usually go off somewhere and converse with the other students, today they were more interested in their newest classmates.

"So…Krysten, are you gonna talk to them or what?" Raven said quietly. He motioned to Vio and Haru, who were currently chatting over their lunches.

"Why now? I mean, they look like they're eating lunch. We don't want to bother them or anything."

Raven shook his head. Sometimes he though his brother had some sort of condition that made him act timid towards people he didn't know.

"Come on. Quit being a baby…" He pushed his younger brother towards the table were the new students were currently sitting at. "Hey, new kids! You mind if we sit by you?"

Vio nodded shyly. "It's fine. We weren't doing anything interesting in particular."

"Well then." Raven shoved his brother into one of the chairs, despite his protests. "So, have the students been treating you well?"

"Surprisingly enough. We were expecting to get a less positive response from you guys; like a hazing or something."

"The last time we did something like that, I got suspended for a week." Raven shook his head. "But you shouldn't worry. The kids are usually friendly and accepting. Of course, if you have any issues, my brother and I would be more than happy to deal with them."

"Thanks for the offer, but we can deal with things ourselves if it gets too messy." Haru said, "Speaking of which, I heard you two are quite the talented fighters."

"Of course we are! We're the two best fighters in the school!"

"It's not something one should really brag about, but it's true." Krysten added.

"Hey, don't be such a buzzkill. Of course it's something we can brag about. I bet they told you guys about the tournament, right?"

"You mean how you were in the King of Fighters tournament?" The girl asked, "Yes, that was something they were certainly eager to make that known. So how far did you go?"

"We where doing good till Terry Bogard absolutely destroyed me at the semi-finals." Raven laughed at the memory, "I tell you, the Power Geyser may look cool on TV, but it hurts like hell when you get hit by it!"

Raven proceeded to tell the new students a brief account of the days in the tournament. They purposely omitted the parts about the clones of Kyo Kusanagi and their battle with Krizalid, however. The SSC had decided to not to admit to anyone that particular subject out of concerns that INTERPOL or any other government agents would be busting down their doors asking about what they knew. Considering

"That's pretty neat!" Haru said as he pretended this was all new to him, "So, do you think we could meet your friends of yours?"

"Soon. We're kinda scattered most of the day and it's a bit difficult to get together sometimes." Raven shrugged. "Zyon got his friends and his job with that slightly nutty teacher of his, and Xion has his friends and some…unruly people that he sometimes has to chase around the city to keep them from causing too much trouble."

"I'm sure you'll end up running into them." Krysten continued, "If you see a blonde boy and he comes up and starts hitting on Violeta, then that's Zyon. If you see a black-haired boy grab Zyon by the collar and drag him off, then that's Xion."

Vio giggled slightly. "I see. I'll keep a look out for them. Oh, I just realized, you're fighters, but you never told us what kind of fighting style you use?"

"Style? Er…that's a bit complicated. My family taught me everything I know about fighting, but I modify it a bit. Mostly out of safety. My dear brother, though, doesn't have a real fighting style. He just kicks a lot. It's probably Tae Kwon Doe."

"It's a lot more than just me kicking stuff you know…"

"Oh yeah, there's the chain thing too. He's pretty skilled at using it effectively during fights, but he's more about the physical aspect. He has a lot of potential, but he never seems to want to do anything to improve; he cares more about playing video games than he does sparring.." Raven continued. Krysten sunk in his seat in irritation.

"Kara-sempai!" A female student ran up to him. "I need some help with my English homework! Can you and Krysten-san come—Oh! I didn't have a clue you were talking to the new kids! Pardon my interruption."

"Don't worry, I'll be there to assist you in a second."

The girl bowed quickly before leaving, and the two new students gave him a puzzled glance. "Kara-sempai?" They said simultaneously.

"Karas. From what I heard, it's supposed to be Japanese for Raven, but I don't know much about that…" Raven quickly got up, "Sorry for the abrupt exit, but I have a responsibility to see that these cute girls get the help they need me."

As he left, Krysten slowly got up to follow him. "I'm sorry, but if I know my brother, he'll probably spend more time flirting with them than actually studying. I swear he's as bad as Zyon sometimes…" He gave a short bow. "Please excuse me."

As Krysten ran off to catch up with his brother, Haru and Vio gave each other questioning looks.

"Didn't take long to gain their trust." Haru smirked. "Mission accomplished."

"Nobody said it was going to be complicated, Haru. But I admit it's good that they're so friendly, it makes things a lot easier for us as we go forward." Vio stuck a piece of food in her mouth, but instantly spit it out. "What the hell? This food is terrible!"

"Welcome to the unforgiving world of public school lunches, Vio."

* * *

Finally, as the school day ended and everyone set off for their respective after-school activities, Haru and Vio prepared to go home. To their displeasure, however, they seemed to forget the most annoying part about starting a new school: the massive amounts of clubs asking for their presence.

"PLEASE JOIN THE TEA CLUB!" One girl wailed as the two newest students walked towards the exit. "WE NEED MORE MEMBERS!"

"Forget that, you want to join the baseball club!" Another girl waving a bat around. "You look like you know how to swing a good bat!"

"You should join the swim team, Violeta-san!" A boy said, "You'd probably look good in a swimsuit…"

"Er…thanks…" Vio blushed and got closer to Haru. "What's with all these people asking about clubs?"

"Just ignore them." Krysten suddenly appeared, pushing them out of the way. "They do that all the time whenever someone new comes along. They'll cool off in a day or so."

"Krysten-san, please convince them to join the Tae Kwan Doe club!" Someone in the crowd shouted, But he just waved them off as he helped the two new students push through the crowd of people. By time they got outside, Haru and Vio had a pile of papers between them.

"Uh, thanks for helping us out, I guess…" Haru said as Vio helped him straighten his pile of stuff. "Hey, where did your brother go?"

"He's helping some of the first years with cleaning duty. I decided to go and get some stuff for dinner, so I'll have to go." Krysten smiled, "Anyway, I hoped you had a nice time here."

"Yeah, it was a great first day. Me and Vio are going to like it here, right?"

"S-sure. It was a pleasure to meet you guys." Vio said shyly. Krysten did the same before turning around to leave.

"That's good. Take care of yourselves." He said before heading in the direction of the parking lot. The two agents went in the other direction.

"Ara, everything went well for this first day." Haru yawned. "I think I'm going to like hanging around with those two."

"But by the looks of it, we'll probably aren't gong to get much info. They don't act all that different from normal kids. What are we going to report back to HQ?" Vio said with concern as they started to walk.

"Let's worry about that later. Right now we're still in the 'fitting in at school' phase of the mission. Bothering them about fighting styles and what happened at the tournament would only arouse too much suspicion. Anyway, what do you wanna do now?"

"I'm…I'm kinda hungry. We didn't eat much at school…" The sound of her stomach grumbling. "That was an awful lunch…"

"Don't worry. I'm sure there's a McDonald's around here somewhere…"

"McDonald's? Are you kidding me? I want to eat some Japanese food for once! Let's go to the ramen shop."

"Okay, okay. I know how we can decide this…"

They both held out their hands. "Rock…Paper…Scissors, shoot!"

Unfortunately, they both had rock. They tried again, and then they both had paper. After about ten more attempts, finally Vio had paper and Haru had rock.

"Rock holds down paper. That means I win!" Haru gloated, but just got smacked on the side of his head in response.

"Dumbass. We're going for ramen and that's final." She gave him the hardest look she had, and Haru relented.

''Okay. Ramen it is then." He didn't want to have a fight out here in front of the school. "But only because I like you." That got a slight giggle from his friend as they left the parking lot.

* * *

On the grass on the backyard of their house, Raven stood there silently. He held his arms in front of him, fist clenched as he tried to keep his breathing steady.

_Alright. Let's do this. _ Slowly, he lifted his arms till they were pointed straight at his target, which happened to be an old tree that sat on their neighbor's yard.

"Charging…." Raven sent all of his ki into his hands as he slow started charging up. "Three…two…one…Fire!"

*BOOM*

Something came out, but it was more of a brief flash of energy that, while not particularly noisy, had enough force to send the young man flying a foot or so before landing not-so-gracefully on the grass._ …Ow._

Raven laid there as his body redistributed the ki through his body.

"Hey, did the new move explode in your face again." Krysten knelt down next to him.

"…yeah. It sucks. But I'm sure I'll get it down eventually." He grinned. "It's just a matter of getting everything exactly right."

"Don't hurt yourself trying to perform that move." Krysten said as he helped him up. "We don't want you acting like Zyon when it comes to new techniques."

"You don't have to worry about that. I'm not that obsessed." Raven dusted himself off. "Remember when we had to take Zyon to the hospital because he burned his right arm trying to practice with his flames?"

"I'm still trying to figure out how he managed to explain how his arm was back to normal a week later."

As they walked into the house, Raven parked himself on the couch and started on the homework that was due tomorrow. As much as he disliked it, he knew he needed to keep his grades in check if they wanted to continue living on their own. It was just that occasionally Raven needed to go out and train for a bit to keep his technique from fading.

As he worked on his English homework (learning the language was something he was aiming for), but his mind slowly started to drift back to that tournament. As clichéd as it was, he still remembers everything clearly. Going from city to city, fighting against some of the strongest people on the planet, and Krizalid, questionable as his aims may have been, pushed him harder than Raven had been in a long time.

_I wonder if I would have been able to beat him if I used Kakusei to it's fullest extent…_ He thought as the pencil filled in another answer. _Guess I'll never know._

Suddenly, his thoughts turned to his female friend that he made. Since they had returned, Raven had only heard from Irena Toryu, the SSC's self-proclaimed representative, once since he last saw her. It was a brief letter that she had sent him a month or so ago which was nothing more than a well-wishing gesture, telling him that she was doing okay (along with a picture of her with newly purple-colored hair), and to keep a look out for signs of the next KOF tournament. Of course, at this point, Raven wasn't going to concern himself with rumors at this point.

"What's going on? You look pretty distant right now." Krysten asked from the kitchen.

"Nothing. Just thinking on how boring it's been lately." Raven put his pencil down. "Dull, dull, dull. Nobody wants to fight us anymore, and it's getting irritating."

"How about picking a fight from some kids from another high school?" Krysten said as he leaned against the couch. "That's what we usually do when we get bored."

Raven glowered at the idea. "Sorry, but that doesn't really do it for me anymore. They're too weak, and I don't really have fun holding myself back for them. It's more exciting when you can go all out on someone. Didn't you have fun fighting against strong fighters?

"If you mean the regular fighters, then yes. If you mean Krizalid, then I wouldn't exactly call watching him beat you and Zyon half to death 'fun'."

"Come on, man. It was a battle with the fate of the world at stake! How could you have more fun than that!"

"We have different idea of what's fun, brother. Besides, even if we didn't win, I doubt that Krizalid's plan would have gotten anywhere. It was pretty stupid and from what Leona and the others told me, had a few flaws that wouldn't have ended well for them." Krysten paused for a second. "Now that I think of it, don't you find it strange that nobody from that group has come after us for more or less destroying their plan?"

"I wouldn't really be concerned about something like that. NESTS have enough problems to worry about dealing with a bunch of kids, right?" Krysten just looked at him. "Uh…right?"

"If you say so." Krysten shrugged as he got up. "You're the one that caused the most damage, so who do you think they're going to focus on?" Raven was about to retort, but his brother had already closed his door to his room.

"I certainly hope that they don't try and target us. If that K' person was an indication of anything, then I rather not see what they would have in store for someone like me." Krysten said to himself as flopped on his bed. In his hand, he formed a small ball of dark red energy. It lit the room up with an auspicious glow for a few seconds before dissipating into the air. "I'll be damned if I wind up being anyone's lab rat again."

* * *

Shikkoku: Yeah, it's been awhile. There's nothing really to note on this chapter other than the next one will occur in about the same time span as this one, if not a bit longer. Actually, this and the next chapter I had considered combining, but I decided that it would be a bit too big right now, so I went back with the original plan. Anything noteworthy about this will be included with the notes for the next chapter.

If there are any errors in this that you see in this chapter, don't hesitate to point it out.

Next Chapter: Xion finds himself in a very complicated situation with a young girl he meets on the street, while Zyon goes through another day in his complex life.

Until Next time.


	3. Wind Storm

Disclaimer: KOF is the property of SNKPlaymore and all that lovely stuff.

* * *

New Blood: Winds of Change

Chapter 3: Wind Storm

* * *

_What in the hell was I thinking?_

Anya found herself standing in the midst of a busy train station, leaning against one of the railings as she observed the stream of people that entered and exited the cars. Being around so much stimulation did little to change her current glum mood, however.

It turned out that her money when converted to yen was barely enough for two nights at the most dilapidated motel she could find. Unfortunately, the second night was yesterday, and while she wasn't sad to leave that loathsome building, it didn't change the fact that Anya was broke and (technically) homeless. And if that wasn't enough, her battery supply was running out, so she couldn't use her Walkman or her Game Boy to try and pass time.

_I can't believe that I thought this was going to work._ A frown formed on Anya's normally docile face. _I'm not about to turn to panhandling, or even…._ The very though made her nauseous. That was one area she wasn't going to venture into, even if it was with a particularly cute guy.

As she thought her situation, a man threw a few bills at her feet as he passed by. Anya frowned at him. _Don't throw money at me like I'm some kind of street side performer, cretin_. She usually wasn't this rude to people, but the trials of the day had whittled down her patience.

"Here's some money for whatever church you belong to." A young woman said and gave Anya some more money.

"I don't belong to a church!" She shouted it in English, so it was lost on most of the people there. Anya was tempted to throw it back at her, but she didn't want to cause a big scene.

_I need to calm down._ Anya took a few deep breaths, and in a few minutes she had settled back down._ They're only being gracious, and isn't that exactly what we're supposed to expect from other people?_ Anya counted the money that she received. It was enough for a bite to eat and hopefully, some new batteries.

Stretching out the few kinks in her body, she started to gather her things. In a few minutes, she had stepped down from the train platform and into the slowly growing crowd of people on the street.

* * *

"Come on, keep still..." Xion Shinlon mumbled to himself as he attempted to neatly style his normally unkempt hair. He was in the midst of his own morning preparations for another long day at school, but trying to look presentable was always an issue for someone who doesn't care much about how he looked. When he finally got it to a point that was satisfying, he walked out of the bathroom into the main part of his one-room apartment and turned the girl that was his guest for the past few days.

"How much longer you're going to be? You still need to get your stuff together before we leave." Xion called from across the room.

"I'm just seeing if our latest deal went through. Nothing that's of your concern." The girl turned to him, white locks falling over her as she turned to face him. "I'll finish getting ready in a few minutes."

Xion grimaced. The 'deal' she spoke of usually involved questionable subjects and illegal substances, and that didn't sit well with him. "Don't use my computer to talk about that stuff. The last thing I need is government agents raiding through my house."

"Alright you big baby, I'm getting off right now." She huffed and turned off the computer. "I'm going to wash up right quick." She went to the bathroom. Her friend gave a light shrug and turned back around, but before he could go back to work, he heard the all too familiar sound of Zyon tapping on the balcony door.

"Xio-kun! Open up!" He mouthed through the glass. "It's freezing out here!"

"Then why didn't you just go inside the building like a normal person, dumbass…" Xion slid the door open and let his friend inside the house. "You're here rather early today. What's going on?"

"Eh, I figured you might need a little nourishment." Zyon dropped a box on the table that sat in front of the TV. "Here, I cooked you something to eat for both breakfast and lunch."

"Er…thanks. You didn't have to do that though, I could have easily just gone to the store and…"

"You really eat enough junk as it is. Just because the only cooking utensil you know how to use is a microwave doesn't mean you can eat out nearly all the time." Zyon flopped on the couch nearby, "I'm sure Makimi gets tired of giving you canceled orders for free every time you come into her restaurant without any money."

"I'd rather deal with that then trying to cook on my own." Xion shrugged, before he grabbed his food. "I'll eat it after I get to school, but for now, I need to finish getting ready." He placed it on the counter as Aira walked out of the bathroom.

"Good morning, Zyon." She greeted him in a polite manner. "How are you feeling today?"

"Aira, what's going on? I didn't expect you to see you here this early in the morning."

"The others are off on a little 'trip', so I'm staying with Xion while they're away." The girl started throwing the school books all over the couch.

"Really?" An evil grin appeared on Zyon's face. "Taking advantage of things, are we?. Xio-kun didn't go too rough on you, did he?"

She blinked once, and then gave him a questionable look. "What are you talking about?"

Zyon was about to go into detail before a large book smacked him in the face. "Ow…"

"Shut the hell up already!" Xion shouted. Zyon grinned as he rubbed his face.

Aira giggled as she passed him by. "Oh Xion, don't be such a stick in the mud. He was only making a joke." She rubbed Zyon's injured face a bit. "You okay, Zyon-kun?"

He gave her a small smile before he suddenly remembered why he came here in the first place. "Oh, that's right! Hey, Xio-kun, can you take me and Tera to our school on the ways to yours, Xio-kun?"

Xion gave him an indignant look.. "No way. At that, I don't really have time for today, since I have to stop Aira by the store so she won't have to starve herself till lunch."

"Aww….but Xio-kun's new car is so awesome …."

"…And it took about seventy-five percent of my cut of the cash we got, so I want to enjoy it a while before you, Raven and Krysten attempt to take it on a joyride when I'm not looking." "Anyway, your school's not that far from here, so stop complaining and walk."

"Fine. I'll trudge through the freezing cold to get to school." Zyon pretended to mope as opened the balcony door back up. "Will I see you at work this evening?"

"I'll see if I can make time for it. If Aira needs help with some homework, I'll probably be stuck here all night." He shrugged, ignoring the nasty look said girl was giving him.

"Good! I'll see you then. Stay out of trouble, Xio-kun." He said before he leapt off the balcony. Xion always had to make sure that his friend didn't kill himself, but every time he managed to get down safely.

"I'm ready to go whenever you are, Xion." Aira said as she finished getting ready. "Let's go already before the store get's too crowded. I want some coffee."

* * *

"Here you go, sir."

"Thanks." A dark-haired man took the cup of coffee from the smiling girl before leaving the store and walking back into the crowded streets of the city. It was boring, but so was being cooped up in a hotel room for hours on end. He got a trip to Japan out of this deal, might as well make the most of it.

Rier had given up a somewhat secure position in NESTS in order to set out on his own, but in hindsight, he had no choice. It was either get out while he could do it relatively safely, or stay and deal with whatever consequence that he got when everything eventually went to hell. He chose the former, gathered his belongings and left the first opportunity he could.

_I've been here a week and I haven't found where that girl went to._ He thought to himself. _The airport records said she boarded a plane to Japan, but am I in the right city? Did she even leave, or is this some kind of trap she laid out just in case someone followed her? _The mere thought of losing all of the money that he was being offered to capture this girl and bring her back sent a chill through his body.

Whatever the case, Rier needed to make some progress soon, because he had a feeling that the people he left would probably be out for blood, and he couldn't stay in one area too long. But he also knew that she was last seen around this particular part of Japan. However, it was so densely populated that even the smallest area he could look had thousands of people. It was infuriating.

"It shouldn't be this hard to find a blond girl in the middle of Japan." Rier groaned to himself as he stopped to lean against a wall away from the crowd, "If what I was told is accurate, then she'll eventually lose it and start slicing people up again, just like all the other times." Trying to assure himself that wasn't helping his anxiety one bit. He supposed this is what he got for trusting an organization that based their whole success on a bunch of poorly made clones…

Something came into his view that got his attention. It was a young girl, but the outfit she wore was strange, almost looked like she was some kind of holy woman on her way to the church. Her blond hair flowed freely out from the hood she wore.

Reaching into his back pocket, he took out the photo that his client had given him. It was a picture of the target walking away from a small shop in Europe, bags in hand and a large cookie in her mouth. Despite the fact that her hair was slightly shorter (the picture was 6 months old, after all), she was the exact same person.

Looking around, he could barely make her figure out as she disappeared into the crowd. There wasn't anything he could do at the moment without drawing attention to himself; the thought of that nearly made Rier punch the wall in frustration, but he quickly came to his senses. The fact that she was here, meant that he was getting closer to his main goal, and in the end, that was all he needed to motivate himself.

* * *

"Kasanari….Kasanari? ZYON! Wake up already!"

Zyon yawned a bit too loudly after the voice of his teacher woke him up. He raised his head just in time for an eraser to smack him right in the face. "Hey!"

"You need to stop dozing off in class, Kasanari. This is important." Azusa Takiga frowned at him. "Did you stay up late doing God only knows what again?"

"Maybe…but what could I do? When the boss decides to treat the staff to a late night Karaoke session, you can't refuse." He merely shrugged. "Besides, things were slow yesterday. I was cooking more food for the other workers than actual customers."

"Be that as it may, you need to use your time more wisely. Your irregular sleep patterns tend to make your work suffer. I need you awake so you can actually let this stuff sink in." This was an all too familiar routine; Zyon would come to class, take a couple of notes, and then promptly fall asleep.

"Alright. I'm sorry, sensei." Zyon finally relented. The extra time at school for detention didn't give him much of a break between that and work.

Takiga smiled in triumph. "That's okay, Kasanari-kun. Just focus a bit more on the lesson; this will be important to the test."

Zyon turned his attention to his notes as Takiga resumed her lesson. School wasn't something he particularly disliked, but it was hard sometimes to try and resist the urge to skip classes and have a bit of fun now and then. He had his responsibilities, however, and that took priority in his life, for the time being.

Shortly after that exchange, however, the bell rang, signaling the start of lunch period, and Zyon bolted from the class the first opportunity he got. Quickly making his way past the other students, he found his sister leaving another room.

"Zyonii, you don't need to be in such a hurry. I won't leave you behind." Tera quickly clutched her brother's arm as he approached her. "So how was class? Boring as usual?"

"Same old stuff, but I manage to keep awake long enough to get the gist of today's lesson." He said with false relief. "Hey, are you planning on going out with Shiori today?"

She shook her head. "I'm not sure, I haven't heard from her all day. I think Shiori skipped classes again."

"She did, huh? And I'd just talked to her about that too…" Another voice replied. Zyon and Tera were joined by someone else, a young man with long and extremely pale blonde hair that went down to the middle of his back.

"Emil, Shiori is a bad influence on my sister, you know…." Zyon said.

Emil Diamant was the product of an affair of a wealthy German businessman and a Japanese woman. He was also the school's personal sex fantasy. It was well known that all of the girls in school wanted to date him; he was rich, foreign, and extremely attractive. Surprisingly enough, he and Zyon managed to have a good friendship despite their different lifestyles.

"I can't really do anything about that, you know that as well. All I can do is sit there and hope that she doesn't get caught by anyone. Dad's not going to be pleased when he eventually finds out."

"Feh, he spoils her too much. I doubt he'll do more than slap her on the wrist and tell her not to do that again." Zyon rolled his eyes. "The only time he got really upset is when he found about what happened with her and Xio-kun."

Emil cringed at the thought. "I rather not remember that particular incident…"

"Does your family still want his head on a platter?"

"Thankfully the tension has lessened a bit, but I still wouldn't let my older brother and Xion get close to each other or they'll probably come to blows." There was a slight pause as Emil placed a hand to his chin and muttered something in German Oh, now I remember that I needed to tell you something..."

Zyon stopped walking. "Yeah, what's it about?"

'I heard a certain someone was coming over here today to visit her old friends at the school. That is, someone very familiar to you, Herr Zyon."

The flame wielder gave his friend a confused look. _Familiar? Who could that be? _Zyon didn't have a lot of female friends; there was Takiga, his boss at work and a few others, but most of them weren't at this school. Older girls wanted no part of Zyon, and younger girls adored him, but that was mostly because he was cute. Zyon felt something stir inside him, and every potential answer he had in his head instantly whittled down to just one.

"Zyon! Is that you back there?" The familiar voice filled his ears, and his blood instantly ran cold. He slowly turned to see Athena Asamiya standing across the hallway, smiling broadly at him. Zyon didn't even have time to come up with a proper way to react before she was right in front of him. "I'm so glad to see you're okay!"

"Er…yeah. Good to see you too…" Zyon could sense all of the students that were staring at him right now. "Er, let's get somewhere a bit quieter, shall we?" She took her wrist and ran off.

"Zyonii! You didn't give me a chance to say hi!" Tera shouted as Athena and her brother went dashing down the hall.

"YOU CAN TALK TO HER LATER!"

* * *

Shiori Diamant hummed lightly to herself as she walked down the shopping district, gazing at the stores as she passed them by. It was a clear, sunny (if not a little cold) day today and she was spending the day out shopping. The fact that she was supposed to be at school right now didn't give her pause one bit.

"Ah, it's just a nice day outside." She said to herself, "This is a much better way to spend my time than being stuck at school, don't you think?"

"Uh, Shiori-sama?" A voice squeaked from behind her. Shiori looked behind her to see her assistants struggling to hold the many bags she accumulated during three hours of impulse shopping. "How much longer do we have to carry this stuff?

"Until I'm finished, duh." Shiori replied. "We still have a few more places to go to, and I have a few more hours to kill before it's time to go meet with Tera."

"Can we at least call your driver so we can give him some of this stuff to send back to the house?"

"If we do that, then my dad might find out I skipped school today." Shiori turned around to give her assistants a stern look. "And if I get caught, I won't hesitate to tell him how you helped me to do it, is that clear?"

Her assistants gulped nervously, not wanting to upset the girl that could possibly get them fired. "Yes, Shiori-sama." They all said simultaneously.

"…And as I keep telling you, you don't need to call me that. Just 'Shiori' would be fine." She gave them a long sigh. "Look, after I get out of this next store, we'll go get something to eat, okay? Just keep your head up."

Turning back around, Shiori noticed someone who was staring at a map with a look of confusion etched on her face. The first thing she noticed was the strange outfit she was wearing: a long, black robe like outfit that looked almost like a combination of a priest outfit and a military uniform. Judging by the long blond hair that ran down her back, she surely didn't come from this country.

_Maybe she's some kind of American cosplayer,_ Shiori thought, _Looks harmless enough. I wonder if she's having trouble getting around town._

Before Shiori could react, the girl was standing right in front of her, causing her to jump back a bit in surprise.

"Er…sorry about that." She gave a nervous smile. "Could you help me with something?" Her Japanese was shaky, but it was better than Shiori had expected.

"Sure, I'll see what I can do." She replied, deciding to stick with Japanese for the time being.

"Well, I'm a little lost. I'm looking for a shopping center or something like that. You see, I need some batteries." She held up a CD player. "My walkman is dead."

"I see. Well luckily for you, there's a mall just up ahead." Shiori gestured to the area behind her. "I presume that you must not be from here."

"Yes. I'm from Europe." The girl said, a bit more confidence in her voice. "But I'm staying here in Japan for a while. Are you visiting as well?"

"I live here, actually. But technically, I'm half-German, half-Japanese." Shiori said. "So where are you going? Some kind of convention? Or are you looking for a monastery?"

"Huh?" Anya realized that she was referring to her outfit. "Um, no. This is something from…uh…my old home. It's a little strange, but it's pretty comfortable."

"Oh. So are you in some kind of religious militia?"

"Milita? N-no! Nothing like…" The girl turned red with embarrassment. A giggle escaped from Shiori's mouth.

"Hey, I was only kidding. Actually, I think it's pretty neat…" Shiori continued.

"Uh…Thank you very much." She gave a hesitant bow.

"How rude of me, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Shiori Diamant." Shiori offered her hand in friendship.

"And my name is Anya Sorenstein." The girl in question returned the gesture. "But I really must be going now..." She gave her a smile. "It was nice meeting you."

"Ditto. Maybe we'll see each other again." Shiori gave her a wink as Anya turned to leave. "Aright, everybody, let's keep moving. The sooner I get done shopping, the sooner you guys will eat. Los!"

* * *

"So, what brings you here?"

Zyon opened the door that lead to the roof of his school and held it open as Athena followed him out. The roof was probably the only place that they could talk without having to deal with a massive throng of students begging for autographs and asking for dates.

"You didn't know that I was in town? I came here to see my old school. It only makes sense right?"

"For what? Most of the people that you went to school with are long gone." Zyon stated.

"…let me rephrase that. I came here to see YOU, silly." Athena corrected, "I never got to hear from you after the tournament ended. From what I heard from the others, you got beat up really badly, and I was very concerned."

"It's was nothing really serious. Just a couple of small cuts, some minor scrapes, second degree burns on various parts of my upper body. Basic stuff."

"Stop acting so casual about this!" The pop singer exclaimed, "How did you recover from all of that so soon!"

"I'm pretty sure you know why." Zyon pushed up his sleeve to his school jacket and presented his right arm to the psychic girl. All of the scars from his battle with Krizalid had all but disappeared. "Pretty neat huh? Thankfully they weren't too severe; it would have taken a _long _time for the scars to fade."

Athena nodded solemnly, cursing herself for forgetting about the extent of his powers. "I know that you heal a bit quicker than normal people, but you shouldn't throw yourself into such dangerous situations. How would your sister feel if you got seriously hurt?"

"Let me worry about Tera. I wouldn't put myself in such a position if it wasn't for her benefit." Zyon sat on the cold concrete, Athena folding her legs and positioning herself next to him. "Besides, I'm more interested about how you're doing. Are you still singing?"

"Of course!" Athena nodded enthusically.

" So…almost twenty years old and yet you're still doing the 'I'm a teen pop sensation' act?" He sighed. "Shouldn't you be about ready to grow out of that phase?

"It's not an act! Just because I'm getting older doesn't mean I need to stop making people happy with my music. Besides, things have been rather rough for the Psycho Soldiers since Kensou lost his powers…" Athena's expression turned slightly grim. "I need to sing because that's of the few things that helps to cheer me up."

"Please don't make such a unhappy expression," Zyon muttered. While it may not seem as such by the way Kensou and Athena casually talk to each other, her inability to help her best friend regain his powers. was eating at her constantly. "I'm sure things will turn out alright. Just focus on doing what makes you happy."

"Thanks Zyon. I'm happy to hear that. But speaking of music, Are you going to come to my show?" She asked, "I know you don't like going to concerts if the musicians don't destroy their instruments at the end of the show, but I would really like it if you came to see me sing." A light blush formed on her face, "Please Kasanari-kun?"

Zyon felt electricity run through his whole body at those words. All of a sudden, he wanted to do anything to make her smile at him. "Of course. I'll come to your concert." He smiled. Athena beamed and nearly brought him down with a massive hug. "Gah!"

"Thank you, thank you! You don't know how excited I am to hear this!" She let go of him and danced around the roof with sheer glee. Zyon smiled and laughed semi-nervously, keeping any impure thoughts from dancing in his head.

"Er…it's almost time for me to go back to class, Athena." He mimed looking at an invisible watch. "I would love to chat a bit more, but…"

"Oh, that's okay. I need to get going back home anyway before my mom gets worried." She gave him a wave, "Tell Tera I said hi. Take care Zyon-kun~" He only nodded as Athena formed a portal beneath her feet and sank into it like she was going down an elevator before it disappeared in front of him.

_She's always good at roping me into these things. _Zyon stared at the spot his friend disappeared in for quite a while, before going back inside the school, where Tera was waiting for him. "Athena says hi."

"So did anything interesting happen?" She said, and Zyon just shook his head.

"I'll tell you later. Let's grab lunch before classes start again." He took her hand and went down the stairs to the cafeteria, opting not to dwell on what just happened for the moment.

Later that evening, Xion was getting himself ready to go out for a few hours. He was in a good mood; school went by with little incident and he and Aira managed to their homework done quickly. Right now, Aira was in the midst of a session of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, which was a weird choice since she didn't know how to skate herself.

"Are you sure you don't want to come?" Xion said as he looked at her through the mirror.

"No, it's fine. I don't really feel like moving around today. Just don't forget to bring me something." She casually waved a hand, and ended up having her character crash into a wall. "Damn…what do I have to do to get this character to do a proper boardslide?"

Xion, taking note of her mood, took the controller from her hands. With the kind of skill one could only get from hours of playing, the younger teen pulled off a combinations of tricks that added up to half a million points. "There you go." Aira gave him a nasty look, but Xion brushed it off.

"So, when are the others supposed to be back?" He positioned himself so his head was right next to hers from his place behind the couch.

"Tomorrow. They got into a bit of a tizzy last night, so they're stuck in Hong Kong for another day."

"Why I not surprised…Those guys cause too much havoc." He shook his head. "Makes me glad that you didn't go along with them."

"It's only for this one time. If our group has to do a deal with another associate, I'm going to be right there with them." Aira finally looked over her shoulder. "You don't have a problem with that, do you, Xion?"

"As long as you don't bring any trouble my way, you can do as you please."

"But you do worry about me, right?"

"I worry about all of my friends. It's just that you and Zyon are the biggest pains in the ass to deal with." He mussed up her hair. Xion grabbed his jacket and put the hood over his face. "I'll be back shortly with some dinner for you. Don't do anything stupid, Aira."

"Duly noted," was all Xion heard before he closed the door.

The sun had already faded down into the horizon when Xion left. Instead of taking his new car, though, Xion chose to take his bike. It was an old habit from his days in Hong Kong, but it was different riding through the Japanese streets than it was in crowded, narrow slums. He didn't have to deal with a lot of people getting in the way or having to dodge angry drug dealers looking for him out of revenge. All he had to worry about nowadays was whether or not he should try to jump over the stairs and to making sure he didn't run over the tail of some poor girl's pet.

After getting into a clear path, Xion was starting to increase his speed and see how fast he could get to LO-RI, when something flew into his face. He was blinded, and lost control of the bike. Trying desperately to slow down, he managed to come to a quick stop, via the assistance of a parked car. Thankfully, the only damage that was inflicted was to that car, as Xion laid slump on the cracked back window for a bit.

"Erg….stupid thing…." Xion took the offending object off of his face. "What the hell is that?" He looked at the cloth in his hand. It was just a square, black piece of fabric. Did it belong to someone? If so, they were looking for it right now. In fact, he could practically hear the sounds of someone mumbling about losing it.

"Stupid thing. Knew I should have held it tighter to my head." A female voice said. "Oh crap! Sir? Sir, I'm so, so sorry!"

Xion looked up to see a young woman running toward him. She was wearing a strange looking outfit; was she some kind of priestess? It wouldn't be that strange; he already knew one at school. Actually, she just lived at a shrine but still…

"Are you alright?" The girl knelt down next to him, looking extremely guilty.

"Don't worry, I'm fine." He slowly got up and tested his body for any injuries. Everything seemed alright. "Was that thing yours?" Xion showed her the thing that had blinded him.

She gave a sigh and took the cloth from his hands. "Yes...yes it is. I think a car zoomed by and ended up blowing the thing right off my head." She placed it back over her blond hair. "I'm really sorry for that."

"Don't worry. It might not look it, but this isn't anywhere near the worst crash I've had." Xion bowed, then examined the girl, "You're not from around here, are you?"

"N-no…I'm from...Europe." The girl refused to give him eye contact for a bit. "But I'm staying here for a while."

"You speak pretty good Japanese for a foreign girl." He smirked. "You must have practiced it a lot."

"Yeah, I've been doing so for a while now. Listen, I need a bit of help." She changed the subject. "Do you think you can help me with something?"

"I'll see what I can do..." Xion got his bike up from the ground before a car could run over it. "So, what was it you needed?"

"Okay…I kinda need something to eat." She said with a bit more confidence. "Do know where there's some kind of fast food place around here?"

"If you came all the way here to stay for a bit, then you'll have to try some local food eventually. You weren't planning on eating nothing but fast food, were you?" The girl looked down. "I'll take that as a yes…"

Xion, feeling hesitant to just leave her all by her lonesome, took a second to think of his options. "I think can help you."

"Really? What is it?"The girl suddenly became ecstatic at his words; it was as if she hadn't had a good meal in months.

"Well, you will just have to see for yourself." Xion pushed forward his bike towards her. "Hop on. I'll take you there myself."

She looked at the bike wearily, "Isn't that kind of unsafe?"

"As long as you don't try to stand on the back of the seat like that one girl did, you'll be fine."

Xion waited for the girl to get on the bike before he started to pedal. It was a little harder to move with the extra weight, but it doesn't hurt to put forth a little effort once in a while.

* * *

"Xion-san! Welcome back to LO-RI!" A greeter said when Xion and the girl came inside the restaurant. "Oh! And it's a new girl! I certainly wasn't expecting anybody to come with you other than Aira today."

"It was…kinda unexpected. But she looked hungry and what could I do?" Xion removed his hood and looked around the active restaurant. "Where's Zyon at?"

"He's busy in the back fixing up a few orders for a customer. I'll let him know you're here."

"Thanks." He passed it to the girl. "Here, I'm sure you'll probably find something you'll like in there."

_I certainly hope so. _The girl took the menu and glanced over it. She was only okay at Kanji, and what she could pronounce didn't sound very appetizing. "Uh, what should I try?"

"Let's play it safe and let me order something for you." Xion put down the menu. He took a glance at the rest of the restaurant; LO-RI was always slow this time of the week, so he didn't worry that this girl would bring him too much unwanted attention. "So, miss, I guess it wouldn't hurt to ask you what your name is…"

"My name…well, it's Anya. Anya Sorenstein," said Anya.

"Anya, is it? My name is Xion Shinlon."

"Well, it's certainly a pleasure to meet you, Xion. I didn't think I would get to meet so many people here in such a short time." She smiled.

"So you already made some friends here?"

" I'm not so sure if you could call it 'friendship' quite yet, but her name was Shiori Diamant."

"What? You met Shiori?" Xion looked surprised, "And she didn't make fun of your outfit or insult you or anything like that?"

"Insult? She made a few comments on my wardrobe, but other than that she was very polite. Why, do you know her?"

Xion could feel the embarrassed blush rising on his face. "You could say that…." He shifted his eyes a bit, making sure no one was trying to listen in on their conversation. "It's complicated."

"Okay. I won't pry any further than that…" Anya said, and Xion inwardly sighed in relief.

"So, let's elaborate further on YOUR situation." He quickly changed the subject, "What are you doing in the middle of Japan? Is there a convention in town I don't know about…"

"_No_." Anya was getting quite irritated with people making that statement about her outfit. "You can think of me as a wanderer; That's all I've been doing for a while now. Travelling from one place town to the next, searching for something I cannot figure out myself."

Xion looked at her with a confused expression. "Whatever that is supposed to mean, it certainly sounds boring."

"I suppose you're right." Anya laughed lightly. "This city is certainly a change of pace from the quaint little towns I used to run around in. It's all so active and lively; and everyone is a lot more courteous then I thought they would be."

"I suppose I know how you feel." Xion wondered what kind of country she came from. She looked like she came from some kind of Middle Age Europe country. He was tempted to joke around and ask if she was looking for someone to fight some sort of ancient evil that has arisen in the present day, but that would do nothing but make her think he was an idiot.

"Yo, Xio-kun!" Two people burst out of the kitchen. One was Zyon, the other was a older woman with long brown hair that stretched down to the middle of her back. Upon the sight of Xion, her face shifted to a sly look.

"Xion-kun, what's going on? Are you here for leftovers again?" She said, "Because we still have a while before closing time so…"

"No. I'm with someone this time around." Xion stated, and both turned to Anya, who had gone back to the arduous task of deciphering the menu.

"Xio-kun's bagged him a foreign chick?" Zyon turned his attention to the lovely girl Xion brought with him, "_Hi there, cutie. May I have the pleasure of knowing your name?_"

Anya was surprised that he spoke English so well. "_It's Anya Sorenstein, sir."_

"_Ah-ah; no need to be so formal, dear girl. My name is Zyon Kasanari, _and this here is Makimi Ayana, the owner of this dump." Zyon stated back in Japanese at the end to make sure she heard him. Makimi responded by putting him in a hammerlock, "O-ow! That hurts!"

"Please ignore my ignorant cook. Please tell me what you want so I can get him back in the kitchen." She said with a pleasant town."

"Give me the usual. As for Anya here, just give her something that she might be comfortable with. She can't really _read_ the menu."

"Good, I think I know what would work." Makimi nodded and shoved her chef towards the kitchen, "You've got your orders. Start cooking."

"H-hey! I wanted to talk to Xio-kun! Let someone else cook!" Zyon struggled against her grip as she dragged him away from the table.

"No! Get your ass in that kitchen NOW! You spend enough time goofing off already!"' Zyon grumbled to himself as she pushed him through the kitchen doors.

"Still having issues with him, Maki?"

"Eh, it's nothing you don't see everyday." Makimi wiped her forehead in frustration, "I'll let him see you when he gets done." She walked into the kitchen.

"Uh, is that your friend, Xion-san?" Anya asked. Xion merely nodded in response. "He's pretty nice. I like him already." She smiled.

"Believe me, if you tell him that, he'll do everything in his power to make you regret it." He said.

"Huh? Why would you say that? You're both friends right?"

"It's his nature to make a pass on every girl he thinks is cute." XIon tried to clarify a bit., "He's doesn't have any malicious intent with it, but he can read emotion well, and if he sees that you have even the slightest interest in him, then he'll go in for the kill as quickly as possible."

They both managed to make some short talk before Zyon came back out with a tray full of hot food.

"Alright. I got you some steamed crabs for you Xio-kun, and for Anya, here's some beef and vegetables. I'm sure you'll like it."

"Wow! It looks delicious!" Anya said astonished, and quickly started eating the food.

Zyon grabbed a chair from an empty table and pulled up next to XIon. "Soooooo….where you find her?"

"Figures that is the first thing you ask me." Xion rolled his eyes."It's a long story. She looked a bit lost, so I decided to help her out."

"By treating her to dinner? You certainly have your ways of 'helping'. I know you're into blond girls, but…"

"Bite me. It's nothing like that."

"You're not very subtle when it comes to lying, Xio-kun." Zyon said, "You think she's cute and you're trying to impress her. You're not really fooling anyone."

Xion gave him a look as he continued eating the plate of steamed crabs. To be quite honest, his friend was right in a way, but he wanted to get to know the poor girl first. He wasn't like Zyon, always trying to go in for the kill as soon as possible. That type of thinking was probably why he never had one steady girlfriend since they've known each other.

"It's just nice to try and give someone a good first impression, you know." He finally replied, "You may not realize it, but neither of us are exactly the most popular people in our respective schools."

"Actually, to be more accurate, YOU aren't popular." Zyon pointed at himself, "ME, I'm very well liked at school."

"By underclassmen and young girls, maybe, but almost everybody else can't stand you. Why do you think that the only person at school in the same grade level who hangs out with you is Emil?"

Zyon frowned. "Fine, fine, you win. Next subject." He snatched a crab out of Xion's plate and broke it open. "Have you told her about the tournament yet?"

"You know I can't do that!" Xion hissed, "You remember what Raven said: if we went around talking about what we did, we'll have government agents and Interpol on our asses in a matter of days. Do you really want social services to hear about you leaving your sister alone while you got involved with a criminal cartel?"

Zyon shuddered at the image of custody agents taking his sister away from him. "I see what you mean. I haven't told anyone but Tera. I would tell Emil, but I doubt he'll even believe me even without some of the shadier elements of it. It's been a few months now, we should keep things quiet while we're not considered targets by whoever this NESTS thing is."

"Yeah…" Xion suddenly turned back to Anya, who was polishing off the last of her food, "She hasn't even noticed us. She really must be hungry."

"No kidding." He stood up, "Anya, would you like me to get some more food for you? It'll be on me."

Anya blinked before nodded wildly, "Please! Go right ahead!" She practically shoved the empty plate at him.

After Anya finished her second plate, Xion suddenly had a thought.

"Where are you supposed to be staying tonight?" He asked Anya, who was busy watching Makimi restrain Zyon as he dealt with a drunken customer who complained about his food.

"Um…well…?" She blinked. "Oh, you know. Just one of those places with the white bed sheets and the bowl of mints they refill every time you leave….that kind of hotel." She smiled nervously at him, but while Xion wasn't as good at reading people's emotion as Zyon was, he could still tell something was up.

"…You don't have any money for a room, do you?" Xion stated plainly, and the girl hung her head in shame.

"No. I'm completely broke, so I don't have any money to get a place." She admitted, "I'm not sure what to do, but I'll figure it out on my own."

Anya gave the young man across from her a sad smile, and Xion could instantly feel a part of him melt on the inside. As much as he didn't want to admit it, he had a soft spot for pretty girls in distress. Xion didn't know if it was a good idea, but he had a plan.

"You know what; I think I might be able to help you." Xion smiled, "Just give me a minute." He got up out of his seat and headed to the back.

Anya stared at the empty spot for a few seconds before scratching her head. What was Xion going to do? She knew enough about society to understand that stuff like this usually didn't end well, but she felt like the boy was different. Besides, if he did try anything, she'll simply tear his throat out. She certainly hoped that wouldn't the case, because she definitely didn't feel like having to run away from anymore people right now, especially if they were cops.

She pondered the situations for a few more moments before Xion went back in with a somewhat satisfied look on his face.

"I've got good news for you and I got bad news for you." Xion started as soon as he sat down. "The good news is that I just talked to a certain female friend of mine, and she's offered to pay for a hotel room for you."

Anya resisted the urge to scream for joy. "That's great!"

"….the bad news is that she can only give it to you for about three days."

Her face was tinged with disappointment, but Anya knew it was obviously going to be a short term thing. Her major concern was just getting some sleep at a place that didn't have funny smelling bedsheets.

"Oi, Xio-kun. You're leaving already?" Zyon called as he rushed out of the kitchen when he saw the two guest head for the door.

"Yeah, I'm taking her to a hotel right quick before heading back home."

Zyon had to hold a hand to his face to hide the smirk that was forming. "Really? I didn't think you were the type to move that fast with women, but then again…." He said as casually as he could muster.

"Shut up, Zyon…It's not that kind of hotel!" Xion hissed.

"Oh. Well, never mind then." He let out a short laugh. "Okay, Xio-kun, go take her home and get some rest. I'll talk to you later. Stay out of trouble."

* * *

"That certainly didn't take long." Anya said as she entered the modest hotel room. Xion had checked her in right after riding around for a bit so she could get what little stuff she brought with her. She was astonished at the change of quality over the one she had been in the night before; It looked like someone actually cleaned the rooms, but it was also quite spacious as well. For the next three or so days, she would be living in relative comfort.

"As long as you don't trash this place, then everything should be paid for by my friend, so feel free to annoy the staff with orders for room service if you wish." Xion explained.

Anya turned to the young man that was her unexpected hero today. "I don't know how grateful I am for this, Xion-san."

"You don't have to call me Xion-san, Anya." He stated, "It makes me sound older than I actually am."

She giggled a bit. "Sorry. My Japanese is still a bit rusty. But still, thank you very much."

"Listen, after three days pass and you still don't have a place to stay, I'll try to work something out. But for now, I need to get home before my houseguest starts using my computer to download music again." Xion turned to leave.

"Xion?" Anya said "This means a lot to me. Please allow me to repay you someday…" Anya bowed deeply.

"No need for any of that. I'm just doing what anyone would do…." Xion paused. "…if he had the benefit of having a rich ex-girlfriend."

The foreign girl blinked in shock, "Ex-girlfriend? You mean?"

"Like I said, it's complicated." Xion beamed at her before turning back around. "Take care. Maybe I'll see you again sometime." He gave a lazy wave before closing the door.

Anya watched as he closed the door. "If the fates allow us, then you will most certainly will."

Looking around, she contemplated what she wanted to do first. Part of her wanted to call up room service and give them most obscenely complicated order she could think of, but then she saw the expansive bathtub, and immediately wanted to take advantage of it. Dropping her bag on the bed, she immediately headed toward the bathroom.

And right outside, Xion was already speeding down the path to his apartment, trying to get back home before Aira's food got cold.

* * *

Shikkoku: Alright, that's finally done. Sorry, it was another case of me constantly finding myself unsatisfied with stuff in this chapter. I need to work on not letting myself take this story too seriously.

Notes:

_-Lots of OCs in the last two chapters, but out of all of them, only Rier, Shiori, Anya (of course) and Luka will have much presence in this act._

_-Speaking of Rier, he's probably not going to have as expansive a personality as the others, as his sole role is 'guy who helps develops things for the other characters'. You won't be seeing him after this story ends._

_-I want to give Haru and Vio (and Anya) of course some good characterization, but it would be odd for a side story to be longer than Act 1. It looks like there will be 4-5 more chapters after this one._

Next Chapter: When NESTS agents out for their own mission inadvertently get mixed up with Rier and his group of defectors, things can only go downhill from here.

Until Next Time, Sayonara.


	4. How Normal is Normal?

Disclaimer: You know the drill.

/ / /

New Blood: Winds of Change

Chapter 4: How Normal is Normal?

\ \ \

"We should have been done a half an hour ago, Haru."

As much as Violeta felt that she had learned a few things about the art of self-sufficiency, there were still the various things that the young girl still had to learn about the art of self-sufficient living. One lesson being that you shouldn't rely on your roommate to be your personal alarm clock.

"It's not my fault. Your body just hasn't readjusted to Japan time yet." Haru voice came from downstairs.

"That's why I wanted you to get me up early, you fucking idiot!" Vio hissed. "Now I have to rush through everything if we want to grab breakfast and not be late for school!"

"Couldn't we just eat _at_ school?"

"If you don't mind going through the day trying to keep your stomach from rejecting that abomination they claim is food." Vio frowned, "I have enough trouble with socializing with strangers now; I don't need 'puking in class' to be the first thing that comes into their minds when they think of me."

"No. There's plenty of embarrassing things you've done that they already think about. Remember how you ran into the door in the middle of class when you tried to go to the bathroom?"

Vio just gave a frustrated grunt as she struggled to put on the jacket that went with her new school uniform. After getting everything straightened up, she looked at herself in the makeshift mirror she found. The sight of the somewhat bright colors of her uniform made her grimace. Viohad always preferred darker shades for her clothes; it was just something she was comfortable with. Her hair was a wet stringy mess, but it would dry out as she made the trip to school.

With everything in place, the two agents quietly left, catching the bus to get to their school. It was a short ride, but for Violeta, who didn't exactly feel comfortable being in such close quarters with so many people, it felt like a eternity. She made a mental note to consider taking earlier buses to school in the future.

They arrived to school with the usual chorus of greetings. Among them were the two Kirishima brothers themselves, who had actually put in the effort of making it to school on time today.

As they sat down for homeroom, the two generally took that time to observe their actions. Raven and Krysten seemed to be dead tired, since the former seemed to be dozing off at times, and the latter had no interest in whatever subject was going on.

Vio scribbled some notes down as class wore on, but she soon found herself too becoming guilty of daydreaming as Vio found herself doodling in a picture of Sonic the Hedgehog racing around the edge of her notebook.

"Yeah, I'm bored too." Vio turned to see Krysten, who had his head laid on crossed harms, muttering to her quietly. It was hard to see his eyes through the mob of disheveled brown hair tinged with occasional hints of red, but she could tell he wasn't listening to the teacher at all.

As Haru packed his bags, she turned her attention back to Krysten. He had spent the entire class with his head down. Vio hesitated for a second, but she extended her hand to nudge him.

"Don't worry, I'm awake."

The violet haired student retracted her hand, slightly embarrassed. "Oh, I thought you dozed off during class."

"I did. But my internal clock is never that off, so I rarely oversleep." Krysten replied.

"I suppose since you've been here for a few days, it wouldn't hurt for me to ask, but…" Krysten paused for a bit, "…what's your parents like?"

_W-what? _Suddenly Vio felt somewhat sick. _I'm not prepared for this…My…er…I…."_

Thankfully, Haru sensed his friend's nervousness at the question. "They're not around much. You know, high working officials doing important business shit." He answered. Krysten looked satisfied with the answer, shrugging his shoulders. "I understand."

Vio, relaxed after that save, decided to make the situation a bit less awkward. "What about your parents?"

"I don't have any parents." He said simply, "I'm sure my brother already told you, but we don't exactly remember a good chunk of our childhoods…."

"That's awful…" While they had both heard about their memory loss from their reports, it was still quite a thing to hear from a teenager.

Krysten smiled, shaking his head at their concern. "Not really. Raven always told me not to concern myself with the past. Besides, I still have a family; it just so happens that it consists of the girl that took us in, her vagabond of a brother and her little sister. I have more than enough memories with those three to keep me content."

The sounds of the warning bell reminded Krysten that he had classes in another part of the school. "Haru, we're going to be late if we don't hurry."

"Right." Haru got up, casually ruffling Vio's hair as he passed her by. "See you at lunch."

Vio merely nodded as they both left, her mind still stuck on what Krysten had said. _Don't concern yourself with the past, huh?_ She thought, memories of her own sordid past flashing briefly through her head. _Not being able to remember your childhood….I wish I had such a luxury…. _

\ \ \

"Thank you for everything!" Anya called out to the staff as she departed the hotel. Her stay was over, and she was back to where she had started before; no place to stay.

However, with some time to examine her current situation, she had a better sense of what to do next.

_If what I heard is correct, I might be able to stay at an apartment for free if I help the landlord with tenants and stuff like that._ She thought. Truthfully, she had no idea if that assumption was close to being right, but she was sure as hell going to give it a try anyway.

She started wandering aimlessly, searching for someplace that might not mind her squatting there till she got a steady source of income. It was a few minutes into that endeavor that she started to have the feeling that someone was tailing her. She didn't need to turn around to confirm those suspicions; the feeling in the wind told her everything. She was being followed.

Having gone through this enough times already, Anya already knew exactly what to do to counteract this. As she pretended to be unaware, she gradually shifted her direction of travel to a more secluded area. If things turned ugly, she wanted to be no people around to get caught in the crossfire.

As soon as the coast was clear, she stopped in her tracks, and turned around to face her stalker. "Why are you following me, sir?"

The person that she saw was just a normal looking man in a regular outfit; nothing that would be of suspicion to the average person. But Anya could feel something about him that was a bit disconcerting.

"I finally found you." He said, "To be honest, I was starting to get worried for a second that I might have gotten over my head trying to locate you in a city like this."

_So he knows me? I guess that means he's not just some pervert, but that also means…_

"You were looking for me?" Anya asked. She would play along, just to give him the benefit of the doubt.

"You're Anya Sorenstein, right?" She nodded and he continued, "My name is Rier, and I've been sent to retrieve you."

_And with that, all the positivity I was slowly gaining back goes straight down the toilet. _Anya's face seemed to sink a bit at his words. _Fuck my life._

"I'm guessing by that dour look on your cute little face you know why this is happening, right?." Rier continued.

"Let me guess: I'm some crazy girl with evil demon powers that someone wants dead because I disemboweled one of his friends or something?"

Rier couldn't hold back a smirk at her answer. "Got quite the mouth on you. Anyway, all I know is that some guy in Europe wants you sent back for some incident or another involving some men you…well, I don't know specifics, but I do know you're quite the odd chick."

"Odd? That's a kind way of putting it." Anya responded. "I figured you'd be a lot more damning of me than that."

"Like I said, I only know what I've been told by my employer. I don't have a clue what or why you caused so much chaos, all I know is that I'm getting a _loooot_ of money for this job, so don't make this any harder for either of us. I'm not that bad of a guy as long as you don't piss me off."

"How ironic, you could say the same thing about me." She shot back. Anya felt the wind around her start to stir violently as all of the anger she was feeling started to seep through her thoughts. If this Rier guy was going to try anything stupid, she'd have no qualms about leaving him a broken wreck on the side of the road.

However, if she wanted to remain incognito, she'd have to withhold her violent tendencies till she was absolutely sure it wouldn't be traced back to her. This wasn't some quaint village in the middle of Europe; this was a big, metropolitan city. If she caused too much trouble, then she'd have half the country looking for her. And considering her powers….

_Damn it._ The winds calmed down. Anya chided herself for nearly giving in to bloodlust. _Alright, you can think of something. Not everything has to end with violence. You know that._ Fortunately for her, help would come from an unlikely source…

"Well, well, what are you doing in this filthy place, Anya-chan?"

Rier, surprised that someone noticed them in the otherwise empty alleyway, turned around to find himself staring into the eyes of a completely different girl. However, this one looked to be a student, going by the uniform, and, from a quick glance, she was a bit taller and had a body slightly more, well, toned than the first girl. Also, she looked quite annoyed.

"Ah, you should know that dealing with guys like these will only lead to trouble later on? Especially with a scruffy guy like him." She folded her arms and cast a dour look at Rier. "You can do so much better than that."

Rier face shifted from surprise to a dark glower. Who the hell was she to stick her nose in her business, "I don't know if you're a friend of hers or some girl trying to be a hero, but you really need to get lost. Now."

"My, my…are you threatening me, a Diamant? You must be quite the masochist." She laughed, "I don't usually like to get guys jollies off for free, but if you insist…"

"Okay, don't say I didn't warn you, girl." Rier tried to surprise her with a quick punch, but she dodged, reached a hand out, and grabbed him by the wrist.

"Ah, ah. You might want to be a little nicer than that. I rather not fight in my uniform, but I have no problem breaking your arm if worse comes to worse." She gave it a painful twist before letting go.

"Idle threats. I'm not some creepy guy sneaking porn tapes under a coat. You'll have to do a lot worse than-"Rier's words were cut off a roundhouse kick to the ribs.

"Are you going to leave us, or am I going to be forced to put you into traction? The choice is yours." She raised a leg, showing that she was more than willing to keep going all day if he persisted. Rier had no choice but to retreat for now.

"Fine." He turned her attention to Anya, who was still standing in the same spot all that time, "But sooner or later, your cute little ass is coming with me, whether you like it or not." Trying not to let the fact that he was still feeling that kick show itself, he stumbled away and into the street.

"Teh, dummkopf. Probably should have just suplexed his ass and got it over with." Shiori turned her attention back to the dumbstruck girl. "Uh….nice to meet you again."

Anya said, trying and failing to hide the sheepish smile that threatened to form. "Yeah…you too…"

\ \ \

_Urg…this is something I never get used to…._

Sakari Toshino first thought as he awoke in the dim room, the steady beeping of the various machines that stood next to his bed being the only sound that he could hear. His mind took the time to try and reconcile his memories, coming to the conclusion that he was waking up from the medically induced coma Luka had put him in right before the process of injecting him with NESTS latest nano-technology. His mind still quite fuzzy, the young man tried to get all of his bearings in order, so he surveyed his surroundings.

There were many such rooms in this building, but Sakari could instantly tell this particular one was the lab that Luka 'claimed' was his own by the amount of junk that littered it. He had been down here on a constant basis, primarily during preliminary testing, but also to provide the occasional assistance with whatever project Luka was engrossed with at the time, though most of that was spent goofing off.

With no reason to be there any longer. Sakari went about the task of removing all of the equipment that had been attached to his body. Tubes, electrodes, things attached to the various monitors that made sure he didn't flatline during the process, and several long needles which, thankfully, didn't hurt nearly as bad as he expected.

Taking a few minutes to stretch some of the kinks out of his muscles, Sakari slowly put himself on his own two feet, making sure that his legs was capable of supporting his own weigh, or else he'd fall to the floor like a sack of clothes. There was a note at the empty bed right next to him, one that he assumed was for him.

_Sorry I wasn't there for your comeback party, but the powers that be are making me go on another fun run for them again, if you know what I mean. If you're reading this, then you're awake, and alive, and if we're lucky, the procedure didn't regress your mental state to a 5 year old boy. You have some time to recover before they start testing you out on missions, so feel free to do your usual activities, and I'll see you soon._

_Luka_

_P.S. If you're looking for your two friends, then the contact information is on the back of this card._

The note was quickly stuffed into his pocket. Sakari just left the room as it was and started on the march to his own quarters. On the way to the elevator, however, he just so happened to run into one of the other main scientist in their sector—Kirou Tsuyomi.

"Welcome back to the world of the living." He casually remarked at the sight of his associate's favorite test subject. "How are you feeling?"

"I feel like crap, thank you very much. All I want to do is get to my room and relax for the time being." He said, inwardly hoping that his room was still in good shape. That is…unless _she_ had been occupying it during his time in the lab, in which then it'll probably stink of tequila and shame. If that's the case, then he had a lot of cleaning up to do. "Anything interesting happen the past few days?"

"Same old situation. I'm stuck dealing with a whole room of girls that are either in comas, barely able to sit themselves up or have become glorified ice statues." Kirou's tone had no lack of irritation in it, "The best girl in the bunch, Iso-something, I believe, is still so weak that she'll probably die in a matter of months."

Sakari nodded in understanding; He and Luka were saddled with an rather urgent project as of late, a project which, with the exception of one particular subject, was a glorified failure that was kept going solely by the cartels refusal to let the thing die. "That sucks. I don't know how much we can do. How is it that only one girl has managed to successfully survive the process I'll probably won't figure out anytime soon."

"Good genetics is all I can come up with. Some of the others are suggesting that I perform harsher treatments on them, but I just can't do that on these girls…." Kirou heaved a long sigh as he shook his head. "But enough of my personal failures, I'm assuming you're curious about where exactly my son and Violeta are at the moment?"

Sakari . "On another mission, I know. I'm used to their wacky schedules."

"Quite a long mission to be more specific. They're off on some undercover work, and won't be back for some months." Kirou answered, and it was clear that his young associate was none too pleased.

"Months? Are you kidding me? What could be so fucking important that I can't see my friends for so long?" Sakari's expression darkened at a sudden realization, "It has something to do with those Shin Sekai guys, doesn't it?"

"Can't get anything past you, can I?" Kirou affirmed, "That is the case, but I can't help but wonder why exactly would you be surprised about that?"

"I'm not, but how could they not send me along with them?"

"Now, now. We needed you in order to test the new nanomachine system that tech ops created. Besides, you're not exactly the crown prince of social skills when it comes to strangers. I'm sure they'll have a mission for you as well, but you need time for the nanites to get accustomed to your body." Kirou looked at a sheet in his hands, "That will take around two or three days, depending on how active you are during that time. And since you barely do anything but train and sit in front of a screen all day… "

"Yeah, yeah. I get the point, smartass. You can be as bad as Luka sometimes…." Sakari walked past the now snickering scientist, before stopping, "Hey, Kirou?"

"Yes, Sakari?"

"You think Vio is going to be okay out there?" He asked, "We all know that she's not exactly the most sociable girl when she's outside her comfort zone."

"Violeta is an agent first and foremost. I'm sure she'll push past any emotional issues she encounters if it means the mission will be a success." Kirou turned around, "Anyway, I have more Anti-K' work that needs to be done. I'll check up on you later to see if there are any complications…."

Sakari watched as the scientist disappeared around a corner. He knew Kirou had his concerns about the entire situations, but he kept his emotions to himself most of the time. What little things he heard from both Haru and Luka , apparently something had happened shortly before he joined NESTS that shook him quite a bit, but whenever Sakari tried to inquire further, he usually got shut down quickly. The one time he asked Vio, she walked away with not so much a word, and he knew pushing her for an answer would only lead to him in a hospital bed.

_I don't think I'll ever understand the people here._ Sakari headed toward the elevator. _Whatever. Time to see how much of a mess that girl has made to my room._

/ / /

Xion hated high school.

No...That was a bit too vague. A more accurate statement would be that Xion hated HIS high school.

From the moment he first stepped inside its halls, he hadn't gotten along with anyone, even though he was never confrontational towards the students. It had gotten to the point that Xion had become a virtual loner in his school without so much as putting an ounce of effort into it. Only through sheer luck that he managed to make the few friends he did have. Aira was one of them.

"Xion, why do they keep making us do essays all the time?" She asked as they walked through the halls. "It's boring."

"Well, this is literature. How else would they be able to tell if we're actually reading the material?"

"Maybe if they didn't give us such crappy books, we'd be more likely to read this stuff. All these light novels in the bookstores and we're reading…." Aira took out one of the assigned books, "_Heart of Darkness?_" She said in accented English, "It's the most boring story I've ever read!"

"Such as any book that doesn't consist of Yakuza members or girls with mech suits battling giant insect creatures…"

"Bite me. Anyway, I have to go home and work on this god-forsaken essay, so I won't have time to hang out with you for a while…"

"Don't worry about it. I'm sure they'll rather have you at home anyway…."

It was about that time that a young silver-haired student crashed into Xion, bouncing off of him and falling on his butt. "Sorry, Xion-san."

"You're being reckless again. Don't hurt yourself." Xion helped him up, "You seemed to be in a hurry. What's the rush?"

"Mikoto is coming today, and I wanted to meet with her before she does her routine with staying locked up in tutoring till lunchtime." He brushed his uniform off. "I got a girl from another class to bake some sweets for her. Do you think she'd like them?"

"She'll enjoy them just fine, knowing her." Xion answered. Akiyo was considered by some to be the school's resident nut job. His right arm was constantly bandaged up, and his right eye was covered with gauze. Nobody seemed to know what exactly happened that caused Akiyo to look like that, but rumors ran rampant with all sorts of crazy stuff. Xion himself had his doubts that the arm was even real. Any attempts to press Akiyo about the subject usually got a shrug and an overly ridiculous excuse-he once claimed for a few months that it was a result of him trying to acid drop off of Tokyo Tower on a skateboard-so most students stopped bothering.

"Akiyo, you should take better care of yourself, especially running around the place when you only have one eye. Aira commented as she walked past the two, "I'm surprised you ever gotten far in any form of martial arts. When are you gonna take that thing off?"

Closing his one good eye, he smiled. "Whenever that happens, you'll be the first to know, Aira."

She obviously wasn't taking that. "You keep giving me that bullshit response every time I ask that question." She crossed his arm, "One day I'm going to pin you down and take it off my self."

"As tempting as it sounds, I don't think Mikoto would like that." He smiled, before dashing off again. "I'll see you later!" He sprinted off, leaving Aira to recognize the context of her statement.

"I really hate Akiyo sometimes." She muttered, holding down the slight flush on her face. "He's my friend, but sometimes I want to beat him within an inch of his life. He and Shiori are the most irritating people at school right now."

"Don't be too harsh on him. We both know how he feels about being asked that." Xion suddenly remembered something, "Speaking of Shiori, I heard she actually made the effort to come to school today, so where is she?"

"Xioooon!" Shiori's cheerful voice reached his ears before she jumped on him from behind. "How are you feeling? Good? Bad? Wallowing in the depths of despair?"

"I'm just fine Shiori." He shook her off. Xion could here the other students murmuring, but a sharp glare from him sent them on their way.

"Don't be such a stick in the mud, Xion." The half-German girl teased as she gave him a small peck on the cheek. "There's something I need to discuss with you, by the way."

"About what?"

"You'll see. Just follow me down the hall." She sauntered away. Xion had known Shiori long enough to know that she could be a lot to deal with, but she usually wouldn't do anything crazy without at least warning him.

"Xion, don't you have class to go to?" Aira said, but he merely waved her off. Even if Shiori wanted to do what he was expecting, it was still better than sitting bored at class all day. Xion quickly caught up to her and they made their way to the A/V room; an area that was the most barren place in the entire school.

"I'm hoping this is something that's actually important this time around, Shiori."

"Well, I'm sure it's something of interest to you." She smiled as she took a seat on a nearby desk, "It's about that girl that is currently sitting in one of my family's hotel. You know, the nun-looking one?"

It took the black-haired fighter a few minutes to remember about the girl who called herself Anya Sorenstein. "Her? Oh, that's right…she was supposed to leave the room today, right?"

"Yes. However, I couldn't let the poor girl rot out in the streets, so I arranged to give her a more 'permanent' residence till she can get settled in the country."

Xion, obviously, was a bit skeptical of her intentions. "You didn't make her your new maid, did you?"

"Oh Xion, you know I have enough of them to deal with already." The girl answered, flicking stray locks of hair behind her back, "I merely found her a much more reasonable place to stay. I hope you don't mind me getting involved."

"It's not a big deal, I guess. You mind telling me where she's at; I want to see how she is faring." Xion said.

"Oh, I think you'll find out eventually. Now that we got the issue settled," She smiled, "I believe you owe me a little…something for being so kind."

All Xion could do was roll his eyes. This is what their relationship had boiled down to since they initially broke up. Xion didn't mind too much, but there was still the concern about their relationship being based on random bouts of casual sex. Shiori constantly stated that she wasn't using him for her own hedonistic pleasures and that she liked hanging out with him, but Xion sometimes felt like he was more her plaything than a friend.

"What are you waiting for? AV club is going to be here shortly and we need to have enough time to clean up once this is over." Shiori grabbed him by the collar of his uniform, "Get over here, _liebste."_

Xion bit back a snort before their lips met. At the very least, it was a slight reprieve from his boredom. "Okay, just try and not make so much noise this time around."

\ \ \

"Alright sis, what do you want to do?"

Zyon waited for his sister to finish packing her bag before she gave him an answer, "I don't know. Feel like a movie?"

"Eeh. Not really feeling anything at theaters at the moment, but we can if you want."He didn't want Emil coming around and trying to butt into their personal time, so he wanted to think of something quick. "Just make sure the movie you pick this time isn't two hours of overly tsundere teenagers trying to hook up this time."

"I'd much prefer that than horror movies and martial arts flicks where big breasted women fly around with constant panty shots everywhere. Your taste in movies are terrible, Zyonii."

As the two started to argue playfully, just outside, they noticed two figures outside. One was Athena Asamiya; the other was a smaller girl, with short brown hair. Her name was Yuki Kushinda.

"She's here again? Doesn't she have pop star stuff that she could be doing right now?"

"Don't be a sourpuss Zyonii; she came here to visit us. There's nothing wrong with that." Tera turned to greet the Psycho Soldier, "Athena-chan!"

"Tera! It's wonderful to see you!" She gave her a big hug, "It's hard to believe you've grown so much since I last saw you."

As the two girls were preoccupied with each other, Zyon focused on the other girl. Yuki was probably the only other girl in this school that noticed him, and she'd been pestering him since he first started. At the time, he didn't know that Yuki was Kyo Kusanagi's girlfriend; all he knew was that her incessant attempts to gain his friendship got kinda annoying at times. Considering how infamously arrogant Kyo was known to have been at times, Zyon was genuinely surprised that a girl as nice as Yuki could deal with him.

"Zyon-kun, I didn't know you were friends with Athena…" She commented, "Friends with a pop princess. The mystery of your past is slowly becoming clear."

"Quiet you." He tried to suppress a smile at his friends gentle teasing, "What are you doing here? Don't you usually go straight home after school?"

"I…" She paused. "I'm not sure the best way to explain this, but for the past few days, I been having the feeling that I'm being watched by someone."

"Watched? You mean someone's stalking you?"

"Maybe. Maybe not. It's just something strange I keep sensing. I don't know where it's coming from, but I can just tell that someone's tailing me." She said. "I'm trying to ignore it, but it's starting to worry my parents, so…"

"I'm going to walk her home!" Athena finished, "And you're going to come with me!"

"The hell? Why?" Zyon was concerned, but he'd figured the girl with the magical powers would be more than enough protection for Yuki. "Me and Tera are going to the movies."

"Certainly you're not going to leave three poor girls alone with some dangerous, mysterious and most likely perverted individual if something was to happen, right Zyon-kun?" Yuki replied.

_Poor girls? Athena could probably beat up the entire student body without breaking a sweat, much less some creep on the street._ Zyon thought. It was fruitless however; if Athena wanted something out of him, most likely, she was going to make him do it whether he like it or not. She could be quite forceful when it came to protecting her friends. "Aright then. I'll help you out. If anybody comes within striking distance, we'll beat them within an inch of their lives."

Yuki rolled her eyes. "I'd prefer if you just kept a look out, Zyon-kun." She sighed, "I get enough grief over my choice of boyfriend, and I don't want them on me for you beating up some guy on the street."

\ \ \

Normally, Anya wasn't very picky about where she stayed at. As long as she didn't have to worry about bugs crawling up her dress or bathing outside because there was no water, she could settle anyplace perfectly fine. This apartment, while not the worst, however, was pretty boring.

It seemed like a place that was too maintained to be run-down, but not maintained enough to look extravagant. As she trudged through the hallway, she could hear various things in the rooms she passed. Dogs barking. A baby giggling as she watched what sounded like a children's show. Parents complaining about the room above playing their rock music too loud.

"I certainly hope Shiori was right about this place being decent." Anya said, but she knew that she would be staying there regardless. What other choice did she have?

Finally, she reached the door. Using the key that Shiori had given her, she quickly unlocked it, and after a low muttered prayer, pushed the door open. This was where she was going to be staying for the time being and….

…

And good lord, it was a mess. Granted, it wasn't like there was wall to wall trash all over the place, but there were a lot of empty boxes, dirty clothes and other junk around the area, and it was clear not a lot of effort went into cleaning as far as this tenant went. It wasn't her place to judge, though.

Trudging around the small space, her foot hit a rather long metal object on the floor. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a sword. A rather exotic looking sword, to be exact, and there was several more surrounding the bed.

"I hope I've haven't accidently entered the room of some kinda psychopath." She muttered to herself. Anya placed the sword back down and turned her attention to the fridge.

"Boxes, boxes, nothing that isn't in some kind of Styrofoam container, I see. The guy probably can't cook worth a damn, but I can't expect a huge four course meal every day." She pushed through a stack of leftovers. "I don't smell anything rotten, so that's one good thing, at least.

Shifting her attention to the entertainment system, she noticed that he had a pretty good stereo system. She was very much tempted to turn it on, put in one of her CDs and just start thrashing about, but she didn't want to risk having anyone come in to see her dancing like a moron.

Speaking of which, the sounds of keys reached her ears. Looks like whoever it was that Shiori had asked to let her stay here was about to arrive. Making sure her clothes weren't a total mess. She opened her arms to greet her (somewhat) savior from slumming. "Hello, my name is Anya…." The remainder of her words died on her tongue the instant she saw who it was that occupied this apartment.

Meanwhile, Xion blinked as his mind registered Anya standing in the middle of his apartment. "I really need to stop letting Shiori do this stuff to me all the time…"

/ / /

"Your taste in music is so vile!" Athena exclaimed, "Don't you know any songs that doesn't involve so much foul language?"

"Aw, come on! You have to learn to expand your options." Zyon shrugged, "Are you planning on singing songs about love and feeling good and cute things your whole career?"

"Yes, because that's what I like to sing about!" Athena shot back, "Surprisingly enough, there are some musicians that actually _write_ their _own _songs rather than get handed generic tracks to sing by record companies."

"Yes, but even then, hearing the same thing out of you for every album gets kind of tedious. Why you think Raven and Krysten and Xio-kun crap on your music every time I mention it to them?"

"Er, how long have those two been arguing?" Tera whispered to Yuki.

"Fifteen minutes. Enough time to make me regret asking him along, to be exact, though I think that might have been Zyon-kun's intention..."

As they argued, the four of them neglected to notice that they were indeed being followed. There were a few cars on the street, but a non-descript van was the one that stuck out the most. It looked like a work vehicle, but one didn't have to watch a lot of films to know that someone was probably waiting for their chance to pop out, put a bag over someone's head, stuff them in the van and drive off.

"Are they alone yet? We can't do anything as long as all these people are here." One of the guys in the van, muttered.

"Don't worry, I'm sure they'll split up when they think the coast is clear. Or at least I hope. Either way-Huh?"

"What is it?"

"That guy….isn't he the man that was reported to have went AWOL on us a few months ago?"

On the lookout for a chance to strike, what they found was something a bit more unexpected. A man coming towards the three and he certainly wasn't a part of their little operation. Though he _did_ look familiar.

"Excuse me, but you mind answering a question for me?" the man asked as soon as he was in earshot of the three.

"Sure," Zyon shrugged, "I'll see what I can do. What's up?"

"My name is Rier, and I'm looking for a girl here; she's about my height, long blond hair, possibly wearing some kind of church uniform…" He took out a photo, "This is old, but it should do quite a bit."

"She's quite beautiful, but I'm afraid I haven't seen her." Yuki said. "Foreigners usually don't roam this part of the city."

"Actually, now that I seen this, this girl actually looks quite familiar…" Zyon said.

Before Rier could inquire further, his eyes strayed to what was behind the people he was talking to. It was a van. A van containing people that seemed to recognize him. _Oh, crap…._

"Uh, thanks for your time, but I gotta get going…" the man suddenly turned around and walked off. The sounds of a scuffle caused them to turn around in time to see two figures jumping inside a van and speeding off, almost as if they were trying to catch up to him.

"That was….kinda weird." Tera said. "Maybe he was some kind of criminal or something."

"That didn't look like any police vehicle I've ever seen," Athena added. "And now that I think about it, that van was behind us for an awfully long time. You don't think…."

Zyon thought about that possibility for a brief moment. "Nope. Most people wouldn't make it that obvious they were following someone. This was probably just some dumb coincidence that we should just ignore and keep walking."

"I suppose you're right." Yuki was sure Zyon's logic was flawed, but the sooner she got home, the sooner she could stop worrying about it. "We're almost there, so you two can go ahead and do whatever you were planning now."

"Finally…" Zyon looked around, "I'll be seeing you two girls another time then. Come on, Tera."

"Yuki, I'm surprised you two can stand each other." Athena said as Zyon and his sister walked down the street. "Doesn't he get on your nerves?"

"He can be a bit, well, _out there_ at times, but in the end, he's a good person." Yuki answered, "You should know that. After all, you've known him longer than I have, right."

"Um…right…" Athena voice became slightly distant at that question, "It's just that…"

"Hmm? Are you alright, Athena?"

"Huh? Y-yeah, I'm fine, just spaced out there for a minute. Let's get you home." Athena grabbed her arm and the two raced towards Yuki's home.

/ / /

"Phew…that test was something else…" Krysten sighed contently. School was over and all he wanted to do was relax for the rest of the day. Of course, part of him knew that he should be training, but the temptation to play video games for the rest of the day was too great for him to ignore. Besides, training bored him. If anything happened, he could rely his natural talent.

His brother had gone off somewhere with one of his kouhai's, stating that he'll be home later that night. He was always running off somewhere, doing this and that, trying to help out as many people as he could, Krysten, on the other hand, usually wanted to be on his own. Not that he didn't like the students here, but he often found interacting with them to be quite awkward sometimes, however well meaning his friends were.

Reaching into his bookbag, he took out his riding jacket, as he started his way out the school. But walking outside, he noticed the two new students, mulling around near the gate. "What are you two doing?"

They must not have expected to see him, because the both of them looked slightly caught off guard by his appearance. "Oh, Krysten! We didn't see you coming!" Haru was the first to answer, "Me and Vio were just discussing about stuff."

"You guys haven't joined a club?" Krysten asked as he zipped up his jacket. "You'll probably find something interesting."

"We tried. Specialty clubs aren't our thing, I guess." Vio said, "Some other students invited us for some sweets, though. You wanna come?"

"Er…I have other plans at the moment. Thanks for the offer though." Krysten said. "Honestly, I'm a little off today, so I'm just going to go straight home."

"It's my high speed XQL 200 sports cycle." Krysten said with a bit more glee than one should have for such an object, "Took up a good chunk of my prize money from KOF, but its well worth it."

"Ooooh…." Vio said as she stared at the red and silver bike. "Sweet…can you ride it?"

"Of course. I've known how to drive one of these things for a while now." He smiled, "Now that I have a license, though, I can do it in public without getting arrested."

"What about your brother?"

"Raven prefers to run around all over the place." Krysten carefully pulled the bike out of the stand. "I'm sure he'd like to get a license, but considering how irresponsible he can get sometimes, it won't be happening anytime soon." He held back a snicker. "Are you two doing okay? Everyone seems to have taken a liking towards you two; hopefully it's not overwhelming."

"Oh no, it's fine. We've gotten used to the kids here." She said, "It's been good so far."

"Alright then. I'll catch you around." With a roar of the engine, Krysten tore off into the streets on his bike.

"Sweet…" Vio was obviously engrossed with Krysten's vehicle, "Damn it, why can't we get cool stuff like that back home? I'd love to have something to drive around in between missions."

"Yeah, that's something we'll put on the list of stuff that we're getting shortchanged on, along with that flatscreen TV and the mini fridge." Haru tone was conceited, "Now shh! The other students are about to arrive."

And just as Haru finished, the doors burst open and several students filed out, quick to surround them in their effort to go to the cake shop.

As the group was walking around, Haru noticed something peculiar going on across the street. Someone was running from two people that looked kinda like the ground forces that NESTS would use sometimes when they needed stuff done without a lot of unnecessary spectacle and stuff.

_Why would they be out there? _While they usually had a way of making themselves known to other operatives, any other person would probably not even so much as glance at their direction, as it was required to them to dress in normal clothes in order to not attract attention. He turned to Vio, who looked to have noticed it herself, but was too busy fielding questions from their fellow students to say anything.

_Oh well. If there was something going on, I'm sure we would have gotten some sort of warning ahead of time._ Haru wasn't about to let paranoia ruin his day.

/ / /

"Alright, Shiori, I get the picture….no, no I don't think it….yes, I trust her, but you could have at least told me ahead of time that you were…Hello? Hello?"

Xion shut his cell phone in irritation. He had just gotten finished with a long tirade with Shiori of having Anya sneak into his house as his surprise roommate, as his friend put it. Not wanting Anya to hear him swear up a storm, he chose to take the conversation to his balcony and close the door. Granted, it probably didn't block out _everything_, but Anya was far enough that she probably wouldn't have been able to make anything out aside from a few Chinese curses and the occasional use of the word 'bitch'.

"Stupid girl. Hooking up with her was the biggest mistake of my life…." Xion leaned against the railing. Looking around the surrounding city, he slowly started to regain his composure. Shiori was great and all, but she liked to butt in his business a lot of the time when she thought he needed her help-or, most of the time, her money.

But it was no use contemplating that at the moment. It was already cold out, and he wasn't wearing his school jacket. Xion opened the door and walked back inside. Anya sat on his couch pensively, not even willing to look at him out of sheer embarrassment. It was as if the slightest word from Xion's mouth would cause her to burst into tears.

"So….how are you feeling?" Xion tried to sound as casual about the situation as he possibly could.

"Okay…" Anya kept her eyes fixed on the table in front of her. Xion decided to try to change the topic to help her relax.

"Er…Sorry about the lousy state my apartment is in. I have a lot of people going in and out of here and it's hard to keep the place straightened up for more than an hour."

"I'm not exactly Miss Neat myself, so I'm not very concerned." Anya managed a small smile, but didn't last for long. "Sorry, Xion."

"Eh, I'm not really that upset about it. I assumed that Shiori sent you over here as another one of her jokes." Xion moved to the refrigerator, looking for something that she might want to drink. "You drink soda, right?"

"Hmm? Oh, right. That's perfectly fine." Anya felt a little better now that she knew Xion didn't care that much. "Are you the only one who lives here?"

"According to my landlord, yes, but like I said, people are constantly coming around here and staying over, I sometimes wonder why I chose such a small apartment." Truthfully, Xion welcomed having so much company, but didn't want to encourage them to ransack his house even more. "It won't win any awards for style, but I've been in less habitable places, so…"

"You're preaching to the proverbial choir. You have no ideal how many times I've had to resort to sleeping in dilapidated housing just to get out of the elements." The girl took a sip of her drink. "You can't imagine how much a relief one hot shower can be to someone like me."

"Uh, yeah…." Xion quickly blotted out the image of Anya washing herself out of his head. "Anya, I know that this is going to be kind of a personal question, but be honest with me; what's really going on that you have to be constantly traveling all over the place?"

Anya raised her head up, and stared into Xion's waiting eyes. "I'm…..I have something that I've been burdened with for the past few years. This thing I speak of is something I'd rather not talk about at the moment, but it's caused me to become a bit of an outcast. I've been run out of every place I've ever tried to live." Her hands gripped the front of her uniform as she tried to keep her composure. "But I'm tired of running. So I came here, hoping to find a little peace, but that's not going so well, obviously."

Xion just stared at her. The rather spirited girl he had saw the other day had been replaced with a melancholy, emotionally drained figure that just wanted to live a normal life. Something Xion could easily sympathize with.

"Anya…" He placed a hand on her shoulder. "It's really been that bad for you, huh?"

"Yeah, it has. So much that someone has sent some guy here in order to drag me back to Europe."

"Yeah, Shiori told me about that Rier dude. It must have been some thing. I guess this is why she sent you here; she wanted me to act as some kinda 'bodyguard' or something.

"Had I known that this was going to happen, I wouldn't have even agreed to this." Anya suddenly stood up and headed towards the door. "A thousands apologizes for this, Xion, I'll show myself out."

"Anya, wait!" Xion nearly fell over the couch as he rushed to her and grabbed her wrist. "If someone is trying to capture you, I'm sure as hell not going to let you walk out the door." He took a deep breath as he prepared for the reaction his next statement might cause, "So, go ahead and stay over here if you want."

"Huh?" Anya wanted to say that she could easily take care of Rier in a matter of seconds if she wanted to, but was too surprised at Xion's sudden act of generosity.

"O-of course you don't have to if you want; I was just saying that if you're worried about finding a place to stay, I'm willing to….OOF!" Anya practically tackled him back over the couch.

"Oh, you have no idea how much I appreciate this, Xion." She nuzzled him like a cat that had just gotten food for the first time in days. "Thankyouthankyouthankyou…"

"H-hey! Easy on my ribs!" Gently prying Anya's arms from his waist, he got back up. "Now then, I guess first thing we need to figure out is what the hell we're going to eat tonight. Do you know how to cook?"

Anya could only shake her head. "Only a few things. I rarely had the luxury of staying at a place with a working stove," she said, "I can learn, but it'll be a while…"

"That's fine." Xion dug inside the fridge and took out some boxes, "My fridge is always stocked with LO-RI leftovers, anyway. Will that be good enough?"

She beamed at the though of more delicious food. "That would be wonderful, Xion. Thank you." For the first time in years, Anya was feeling optimistic for her future.

\ \ \

Shikkoku: Alright, time to get back on track. Nothing really to note here at the moment, so…

_Notes:_

_Meet Sakari Toshino. He's basically a slightly introverted friend of both Haru and Violeta, and when he's not rotting his mind away in front of some type of screen, he's usually assisting Luka and Kirou with their various projects._

_So…how many chapters are left? I haven't really though of it much, but I think….4-5 will be enough? I had a few more ideas, but I think I'll leave them for the beginning of Act 2. Speaking of which, I think I might have came up with a title for that, but I'm still skeptical, so I won't say at the moment._

_I might sneak in a little flashback scene next time that'll give a hint to Violeta's sordid past. I'll avoid spoilers for now, but believe me when I say it's not pretty._

So that's that. I'm surprised that this story has gotten noticed even though it hasn't been updated in about a year. Thanks for sticking around. As usual, let me know if you see anything strange. I try my best to catch mistakes and sentences that end unexpectedly, but I still miss stuff sometimes. And so…

Next Chapter:

Until Next Time, Sayonara (and don't worry, Kurai Tenshi will be updated soon…)


	5. Nothing Special

Disclaimer: I don't own KOF, but if I did, you'd bet that XIII would have had a much more substantial story mode.

\ \ \

New Blood AS - Winds of Change

Chapter 5: Nothing Special

/ / /

"_This is bullshit. Total. Utter. Bullshit."_

"_I'm sorry, but we can't continue this project of yours. This has cost more money than it should, and is based on extremely flawed science."_

"_Genetic Engineering is not 'flawed science'! This could be the breakthrough for the fucking ages, and you want to take away_ MY_ funding because you don't want to deal with the fact that one of your clients, who, by the way, put herself as a test subject out of her own free will, ended up dying because her body couldn't take it?"_

"_You reduced a formerly healthy, 20-year-old young lady into a quivering invalid who could barely respond to her own name before she died! This is dangerous stuff you're dealing with here, but you're only concerned with being a scientific superstar! That's why we're cutting you off!"_

_And with those words, the man who had been charged to give the news had a quick but productive meeting with the business end of a violet-haired woman's fist._

"_GET THE HELL OUT!" Akane Nakahara was enraged. As the man stumbled to the ground outside her door, scrambling to avoid her wrath. "And tell those pricks that I we can get our funding from a lot better companies than you bastards!" She said as she slammed the door closed._

_But she was absolutely furious, not just as a person, but as a woman of science. Everything that she had been working for the past few years was about to go up in smoke, and if she didn't have any funding…_

"_Don't worry so much, Akane." A young man said, leaning against the doorway where he had observed the entire confrontation. "I'm sure that some other company will be itching to get a chance at this."_

"_You don't understand, Kirou. Genetic engineering is a bit of a touchy thing to a lot of people. If shit starts hitting the fan, no reasonable company will want to be caught up in the backlash of having reporters and watchdog groups asking if why they gave financial support to scientists for highly controversial and potentially illegal experiments. We need to find someone that would be able to deal with that stuff."_

"_That could be quite a task. But…" Kirou trailed off, but Akane was already intrigued._

"_But what? If this will help us, then spit it out already."_

"_I've been hearing some rumors that there's a group of people that are interested in research like ours." He continued, "I'm not sure if they're all that well known, but they don't seem to be a public company, so they might be a bit more lenient when it comes to what we do."_

_Akane pressed her lips together slightly, considering her options. "I guess it wouldn't hurt to inquire further, at least. You think you can hook us up?"_

"_Hmm. I'll try calling my contacts and see what happens next." Kirou headed towards the door. "Anyway, I'm going to go pick up my son. I'll talk to you later if I come up with anything."_

"_See ya." Akane gave him a rather half-hearted hug before he closed the door. Her rage had utterly dissipated, leaving her exhausted. If it weren't for the fact that her daughter would be home any minute, she wouldn't hesitate to start drinking that instant._

"_Mommy?"_

_She rose from her seat on the bottom of her step as her daughter timidly entered their home. "Hey, kiddo." The young mother called out as soon as she saw her, "How were things at school?"_

"…_okay, I guess." The girl said quietly. Akane scooped her up and gave her a big hug. "Is everything okay? You look sad."_

"_Oh, don't worry about me, Just having some issues at work. I'll have it settled soon if we're lucky." She gave her an affectionate nuzzle, "In the meantime, since I'll have some time off from work for a while, how about tomorrow we go to the amusement park?"_

_A bright smile appeared on her face. "But doesn't daddy get upset when I don't go to school?" She said._

"_Your daddy gets upset when I let you drink soda during breakfast; that's why you're with me, and he's probably at his new girlfriend's house wishing he was dead." Akane lifted her daughter up and the two of them headed toward the kitchen. "Come on, I'll fix you something to eat."_

Violeta sighed as she sat in the bed, the alarm clock Haru brought for her room blaring in her ear for a few seconds before turning itself off. This wasn't the time to be having these memories replaying in her head. A lousy way to start the day indeed.

As her bleary eyes turned to the now silent clock, she suddenly found herself completely awake when she saw the clock and realized that she's a half hour late in getting up for school. Haru was going to get some hell for this.

"Uh, Anya? You awake yet?"

Anya woke up to the sounds of Xion stirring about in the apartment, gathering this and that to get ready for school. She was currently sleeping on the (thankfully comfortable) futon; an arrangement that she insisted on despite Xion's repeated assurances that it was okay for her to take the bed. It made no difference. Compared to some of the other things she'd slept on, this was like lying on a pool of feathers.

She peeked her head from behind the couch; her hair scraggly from sleeping on the futon. "Hmm? Is there something wrong, Xion?"

"It's been a few days…You think we should get you out of the house for a few?" Xion said as he struggled to put on his tie, "I don't know if that Rier guy is still looking for you, but I doubt he's the type of guy that would go after someone if they had backup. Besides, I know you're bored sitting around all day, aren't you?"

Anya nodded; though she liked being able to spend the day watching MTV and eating the various sugary cereals that he kept stock in his cabinets, it got a bit boring really quick. It had been a few days since Anya 'moved in', and it was still very awkward for the both of them. "Could you take me to the mall?" She said, still slightly drowsy.

"The mall? Sure, if you want." Xion answered, "I'll just pick you up after I get off from-"

*SLAM!*

The sound of the door being kicked open stopped their conversation dead in its tracks. Aira casually walked inside as if she didn't just wake up half the people on his floor with that noise. Kayane trailed close behind, the expression on his face implying that he was being dragged along against his will.

"What the hell are you doing?" Xion's irritation was quite evident, but Aira barely acknowledged it.

"Good morning Xion. Sorry for barging in, but you owe me coffee and-" Aira stopped at the sight of the strange blond girl on his couch. "…the hell?"

_Just my luck. Knowing her, Aira will not hesitate to tell the whole school about this. _Xion had opted to wait a bit before mentioning it to his friends, but that was turning out to be a gross error in judgment. _"_I'm pretty sure the two of you are wondering what this girl is doing here…"

"Oh no, I'm pretty sure what you've been_ doing_ with her," Aira crossed her arms, "I'm more curious about who she is."

"You mean Shiori didn't tell you?"

"I've been hanging out with her the past few days, but she's usually coy when it comes to what the two of you are doing." Kanaye started to rummage through his fridge, trying to look casual and spare him some of the embarrassment. "Whatever Shiori's doing, I'd probably only know through you."

"That is to be expected." After the 'incident' that happened a short time ago, Shiori and Xion decided to be a bit more cautious about what they did in public while things with her family cooled off.

"Long story short, she's staying with me for a while till she gets settled in Japan," He explained, "Shiori just so happened to feel that my small, cramped apartment would be perfect for two people to try to live in together."

"So this is another wacky scheme that girl has roped you into?" Aira gave a slight shake of the head. "Why do you still involve yourself with her like that, Xion?"

Xion was about to give an answer, but Anya decided to put it upon herself to break the ice with his friends. "Er, Hi. My name is Anya Sorenstein..."

However, the foreigner had neglected to take into account that her attire currently consisted of a white t-shirt, and slightly clingy blue shorts and little else. Not the most revealing attire one could be seen in, but it didn't help Xion's story a single bit, either.

Kanaye faked a cough as he tried to avoid looking at her, while Aira held her hand in front of her mouth to hide the widening grin that was growing on her face. It was only that time Anya realized her current state of dress. She quickly leapt and hid behind Xion like a child seeking the safety of their parents. Aira and Kanaye just stood there, resisting the urge to snicker.

"It's alright, Anya. I've hung out with Xion long enough; half-dressed girls walking around his apartment are the norm around here." Kanaye reassured.

Xion rolled his eyes at his friend's remark. "Thank you for that remark, Kanaye. Now if you two could please get out while I finish getting ready, that would be a big help."

"Alright, alright." Kanaye said as he opened the door. "I think I know Shiori's train of thought enough to know the real story. Don't worry about it. We won't spread any rumors. At least I won't; Aira is will probably blab this to about five people before she even leaves the building."

"Shut up." Aira shoved him out the door. "I'll be waiting in your car, Xion." Kanaye and Aira left the room, leaving Xion and Anya to stew in their embarrassment.

"You certainly have quite the set of friends." Anya finally said once she was sure they were long gone. "Are they always like that?"

Xion could only shrug his shoulder in utter defeat. "Unfortunately, yes."

/ / /

"Ugh. How long is Vio going to be all pissy about that?" Haru murmured as he climbed the stairs to the roof. Lunch had just started, but with his friend still sour about nearly being late for school, he decided that the best plan of action for him was to hide somewhere remote till Vio cooled off. Of course, it could be _hours_ before that happened, so that plan really wasn't as viable as he would have wished.

To try and give her as much space as possible, he decided to stay up on the school's roof till lunchtime passed by. Hoping to see some girls that he'd be able to have a chat with, instead he found himself standing there alone.

_Figures. I guess it's a bit too chilly for anyone today. _After setting out his lunch, Haru pulled out a notebook from his bag. Instead of school notes, however, he had all of the information he had learned about the two brothers so far during his stay. Obviously, most of the information was absolutely meaningless for his mission, but there were a few items that they found interesting. Strangely enough, those items were revealed not by them, but by one of his classmates…

( ( (

"_You sure do eat a lot of cake."_

"_Heheh…I guess I kinda do. But it's so good." The young girl took another enthusiastic bite. "I usually have to beg Karas-sempai to buy me some, so it's great that you're willing to do this for me."_

"_Well, we have a bit of extra money, so it's no big deal." Vio replied. "Your name was Eiko, right?"_

"_Eiko Hisakawa." She corrected. "But please feel free to just call me Eiko."_

_While most of the other kids had gone home, Vio, Haru and Eiko had opted to stay a bit longer, after Vio had inquired about Raven and Krysten. Thankfully this girl seemed to know quite a bit about them, and buying her more cake was an easy price to pay for valuable information._

"_Okay, Eiko. What do you know about Raven and Krysten?"_

"_Karas-sempai and Krysten-kun came to our school a few years ago." She said, "I remember Krysten was really shy, so Raven did a lot of talking for the both of them. He was friendly enough, but he didn't seem to like going there at first."_

"_Why's that?"_

"_His amnesia. He found it hard to relate to people sometimes because his memories only went back a few years beforehand. Some things that other kids did with their parents confused them and some of the kids would make fun at them about it. For a time, Karas-sempai didn't bother to come to class. He'd just stay up in the roof, listening to music all day. Krysten eventually opened up, however."_

"_But a short while after he came, our school had come across a bit of trouble. A few thugs from another school had decided to come over there and start some trouble for some reason. I think it had something to do with some other schools and students getting assaulted-I don't remember the exact details. But anyway, my friend was being harassed by these guys, and I tried to calm the situation down, but one of them smacked me away._

"_Out of the blue, Karas-sempai showed up. He started telling them off, but all they managed to do was rile them up. I didn't get a chance to see because my friend was busy tending to me, but I heard a few hits, some strange sound, and when I finally got to my feet, the two guys were knocked out, slumped on the ground. Karas-sepmai was scratching his head, as if he didn't have a clue what just happened. He walked up to me and asked me if I was alright…"_

_Vio and Haru listened closely as the Eiko continued her story. It was obvious she herself had to hold back the obvious blush that was forming. "Then Krysten came around and ran the guys off the school. I don't think I ever found out what the whole situation was about, but after that, things started to improve between them and the other students. Since then, anytime there's a problem, they're usually the ones that help us the most."_

"_Really?" Vio said._

"_Yep. I must confess…it was kinda my idea to start this whole 'King of Fighters' thing in the first place." Eiko lowered her voice, not wanting the entire store to hear, "I'd heard rumors about a new tournament, and I thought it would be fun to pester them about it for a bit. But eventually, the whole school started to get on it. I think that's how they got noticed." She smiled. "But I guess it worked out for them well. They didn't seem too upset that they lost. I'm happy for them."_

_) ) )_

Haru closed the notebook, making a personal note to thank Eiko the next time he saw her. There were still a lot of questions that needed to be answered-the origin of their powers, for one thing-, but Haru didn't want to go to the well too many times in such a short time. He certainly wished he could ask NESTS to give him some of the video footage they recorded, but that spread too much risk of leaks to the public.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" A voice behind him asked. Haru jumped to his feet, extremely startled. It was Raven, leaning over him with no lack of curiosity on his face.

"Not really that pleasant a place to have your lunch, is it?" He continued "Did you piss Violeta off or something that you're trying to avoid her?"

"Y…You could say that." Haru quickly shoved the notebook into his book bag.

"Figures. She looked pretty irritated when we saw her at class earlier today." He leaned against the fence that surrounded the rooftops, "You should probably be a bit more persistent in waking her up on time."

"Yeah, whatever." Haru started to finish the rest of his lunch "Anyway, what's going on?"

"…Do you wanna meet the other members of my team?" Raven asked plainly, but it was enough for Haru to stop eating at mid-bite.

"W-what?" The possibility of them meeting Zyon and Xion was high, but Haru hadn't expected for Raven to just out and ask that without any needling from the two of them. "Really? You'll have us meet them just like that?"

"Well, yeah." Raven placed his hands behind his head. "I mean, you'll probably be seeing them around here sooner or later; might as well introduce them to you now when everyone has a bit of free time. So, what do you say?"

_Not really what I expected, but can't refuse this chance. _"S-sure! I'd be honored to meet your friends!"

Raven smiled at the answer. "Cool. Now then, I suppose we can meet up tomorrow at LO-RI?"

"LO-RI?" Haru was a bit confused. He was more than familiar with most of the restaurants in town-Vio could attest to that-but he hadn't heard of that one before.

"It's the restaurant that Zyon works in." Raven explained. "He's real tight with the owner, so she'll make room for us. The food is pretty good as well."

"Sounds good." Haru was absolutely not going to refuse the offer, even if it wasn't for the mission. "You've got yourself a deal."

"Awesome! I'll let them know…" Raven motioned behind him. "And you might want to look out, because I think I hear Violeta coming your way. Later."

Raven departed into the school, and a few minutes later, that time that Violeta appeared, having been looking for Haru for a few minutes. "Yo Haru, I'm not upset anymore, so you can quit hiding..." She said. "Where are you two talking about? Boy stuff?"

"Uh, no…" Haru made sure to check if anyone else was lurking about before he continued, "Raven just invited us to meet those other two guys tomorrow night after school."

"That was kinda quick." Vio said, "I was going in expecting it to be a few months before this happened; we've clearly underestimated how trusting they are."

"Right. The faster we get familiar with them, the easier our job is." Haru leaned back against the fencing that surrounded them; wanting to enjoy the last few minutes of peace before it was time to go back to class.

/ / /

"Hoooo boy…" Tera stretched out her arms as far as she could. "Another meaningless day of school is over."

The past few days came and went by with little incident. Yuki, cautiously optimistic that whoever was stalking her was scared away from what happened the other day, decided to walk with Tera home, not wanting to annoy Zyon by continuously guilt-tripping him into bodyguard duty. Besides, it was looking like he wasn't going to be here at the moment.

"What In the world is Zyon doing right now?" Yuki asked, "I've haven't seen him at school all day."

"If I was to guess, I'd say he's mucking about in town somewhere." Tera said, "Or over some girl's house. I think the other day he spent the night over one of his co-workers after he got off from LO-RI."

"Why?"

"He said something on the phone about how a bunch of people ended up staying past closing, and she offered to let him stay over her place while her dad was on a business trip." She frowned up, "I want to go under the assumption that he's telling the truth, but the way she was all giggly when I talked to her that next day, I can't help but have some suspicions."

"Always the playboy." She said jokingly. "As long as he keeps it away from school, I'm fine."

"I wouldn't be sure about that, either."

As the two girls talked, the subject of their conversation was actually much closer than they had assumed.

Zyon was walking a reasonable distance from them, on the other side of the street. Even though he hadn't heard anything further about this supposed 'stalker' for a few days, Zyon was still a bit hesitant to let her go home by herself. While he usually would trust his sister to be a decent protector, Zyon figured that following them just this one last time wouldn't hurt.

If nothing happened, then it meant that whoever it was that was tailing her got spooked and probably wouldn't go after her again. Otherwise, assuming Tera didn't take care of things herself, he'll simply come in and put the offender into traction before anything bad happened.

His eyes kept watch for any suspicious looking vehicle and/or people that might be lurking around the vicinity, but it was only when they got to a less active part of town that he noticed one person who had been walking the same route as the two girls for a while, and he was starting to quicken his pace in order to keep up with them. Ducking behind a parked car, Zyon wanted to see what happened.

"Hey, Yuki. I think we have company." The two of them stopped and saw the mysterious figure heading towards right towards them.

"Oh no…" Yuki wished that Kyo was beside her more than ever. Tera, however, wasn't going to let this pass without a fight. She stood right in front of them the moment the man had gotten into grabbing range.

"Hey there, what do you think you're doing-," A sharp shove from the perp sent her to the ground. "Hey!"

"Tera!" Yuki, fearing for her own safety, opted to try and smack the man with her school bag, but he caught her wrist in mid swing.

"Finally." The man sounded relieved. "Sorry girl, but you're juts the bait we need. You'll be good bait for getting Kyo Kusanagi back in our clutches again."

At the mere sound of her boyfriend's name, her eyes widened. "K-Kyo?! What are you talking about? Do you know where he is?"

"No. But I'm sure he'll come running if he knows what we'll do to you. Let's get going, there's a ride waiting for us up ahead…" His tone didn't have any malice in it, but she knew that his intentions where far from noble.

Yuki struggled, but the grip of the man was too strong for her to break. As she felt herself slowly being dragged off to who-knows-where, she saw something out of the corner of her eye. Tera came out of nowhere and gave a flying kick to the man, releasing his grip and sending him staggering to the ground.

"I expected better. How sad." Tera stood in front of him, eyes defiant. "Now, would you like to put your hands on me again? Go ahead. I _dare _you."

"Tera? What are you doing?" Yuki stammered at the boldness of her friend, but she merely stood her ground.

Embarrassed, the man answered Tera's bluff and got up to take care of the girl. Before he could even attempt to make a grab for her, however…

"Boom!" Tera thrust forward a palm, and a quick pulse of ki shot out in his direction. The blast sent him flying a good distance away from both of them, and by the way he was convulsing, he wasn't getting back up anytime soon.

Tera let out a sigh of relief. "Certainly didn't plan to do that." She said; her hand felt like fire for a few seconds from the sudden attack. "Yuki, are you alright?"

Yuki was still trying to comprehend just what had happen in those brief moments. "Er…Uh…Di-Did Zyon teach you how to do that?" She managed to squeak out.

"What? Oh…Yeah. I managed to learn that kind of move, at least." Tera suddenly became quiet, as if she was feeling a bit hesitant to talk about it, "I won't be throwing out massive energy balls anytime soon, but hey, gotta start somewhere."

"Couldn't you have done a low blow or something? That seemed a bit excessive, even considering the circumstances…" She said, "You and your brother scare me sometimes."

"I spent too much time learning these fancy techniques to settle for some cliché move they teach middle-aged women at the community center for self defense classes." She rolled her eyes. "Come on, let's get you home already."

As Yuki was helped up to her feet by Tera, she was still trying to figure things out in her head. Who was that man, and what did he have to do with Kyo? Was something going on with him that contributed to his disappearance? Was he okay? She had inquired a few times to Zyon when he told her about KOF, but he merely brushed off the subject. While normally Yuki didn't pry into his personal life too much, something told her that he was hiding something.

"Yuukiii~! Move it already before that guy realizes we're still here!" Tera's complaining kicked her out of those thoughts. The two walked away with a bit more speed than before.

The man, still trying to recover from Tera's impromptu assault on his stomach, slowly started to come to. Using a nearby car to try and get back to his feet, he realized that Yuki and the other girl were long gone. Any further action he would have taken, though, was quickly nullified. He felt the grip of someone holding him by the back of his neck before a surge of pain spread throughout his body. Within seconds, he dropped to the ground for the second time in a short period.

"_Candyass._" Zyon said in English as he stared balefully at the unconscious man, "If you had gotten a lot farther than just shoving my sister, you'd be a lot worse off. Next time, however, I won't be so kind."

He knew that a reaction from him wasn't going to happen, but he didn't want to be caught here in case someone saw him. Shoving his hands in his pockets, he headed towards home.

/ / /

"Uh, Anya?" Xion said with the slightest hint of discomfort. "Are you almost done?"

"Just need to check out this last row of CDs and I'll be ready."

After the young foreigner got home from school, as promised, he took Anya out of the house, trying to prevent her from feeling a bit cooped up in his train wreck of an apartment. He'd let her have the choice of where to go, and she chose the mall. As such, he'd spent the last hour or so standing in the middle of a game store while Anya took her sweet time observing every item on the shelf.

"I can't really read any of this print, but all of these games look really good!" Anya said, "I don't know which one to get…"

_She has about __**five**__ games in her arm already. Why would she want any more? _Xion looked around. There weren't enough people here for her attire to cause a scene, but he was aware of the few stares he'd received over the past hour or so. He certainly hoped that no one from school was here, or else it would be a total mess.

"Yo! Xion!"

_Oh for the love of…_ Xion turned around to see the Raven walking into the store Not that they were the worse people that could have seen him, but it still would be a bit awkward at the moment, especially when Anya was walking around with _that _outfit.

"I didn't expect to find you here today." Raven said as he approached him. "What's up?"

"I'm just...doing stuff." Xion acted as casual as he could. "Where's your brother?"

"Gaming, as usual. I decided not to bug him into coming with me this time around." He said.

The two chatted for a bit, and Xion was hopeful that Anya would be too busy looking at games to notice the two of them. He didn't want to have to explain this situation to anyone else today.

"All done, Xion!" Anya abruptly entered into his peripheral vision. "I think this should be enough, don't you think?"

But of course, luck wasn't something he was too familiar with as of late. Xion held back a sigh as Raven's expression shifted to slightly confused. This wasn't a very good day for him, was it?

"Er, who's the girl?" The older Kirishima raised an eyebrow as he examined the girl standing next to Xion.

Xion was about to reply, but once again Anya took the initiative. "My name is Anya Sorenstein."

"So…ren…stein…" Raven said slowly, trying to make sure his pronunciation was correct. "Okay, Anya. I'm Raven Kirishima. I wonder why you're hanging around with Xion, though. Coming from a costume party?"

"Er..no I'm not."

"It's rather complicated; all I'll say is that she's staying with me for the moment." Xion said. Raven glanced back at Anya before going back to Xion again.

"Oh, I get it…" A sly smile appeared as he realized what his friend was doing, "Glad you've finally recovered from that whole Shiori debacle. I swear, I've never seen anyone stir up so much shit just for being with a girl …"

"_Anyway_…" Xion forcefully interrupted as he reached for his wallet, giving Anya some cash, "Go ahead and purchase those games while I talk to this moron right quick."

Anya earnestly took the cash and bolted off. Xion turned back to Raven with a look of irritation. "You mind not going on about what happened with Shiori right now?"

Raven shrugged with one arm, "Hey, what can I say? Zyon had to go through a lot of stuff to keep those Diamant from ripping you apart like wolves." He snickered. It was quite a event for the four of them, "Anyway, she's staying at your place? What's up with that?"

"Shiori pretty much forced me into it, to be honest, but I suppose things could be worse." Xion said. "Apparently, some guy is stalking her so he can drag her back to Europe or some shit like that, so I'm keeping an eye on her till she feels the coast is clear. That's it, got it?"

Raven looked at the girl in question. He had a hard time believing that girl was just staying over Xion's as a 'favor' of Shiori. However, he didn't really want anymore unnecessary fights on his record, so he chose to just take his word for it. Of course, there was another question that arose. "Did you tell her about KOF yet?"

"Of course not." Xion said matter-of-factly.

"Well…" Raven drifted off a bit, "I want you to be careful, but maybe I was a bit too strict about the whole 'don't mention it to everyone' especially since I told the kids in my school about it…."

"What?!"

"Just the main tournament itself, mind you Not about the clones or what's-his-name or all of that other stuff." Raven wilted a bit under Xion's glare, "I really don't want anything to happen to Irena because I blabbed about it to the public, but I don't think it would hurt if we just told them we were a part of the tournament. It really hadn't gone public yet, so what harm could it do?"

Xion eyes narrowed at the mention of Irena Toryu. He was still slightly peeved about Raven dragging them into a potentially fatal situation because of a crush he refused to admit he had, but he had no arguments that he could bring up to stop it. "Fine. Just be careful. I'm not getting shipped back to Hong Kong because you couldn't keep your trap shut."

"Always so harsh…" The younger man scratched his dirty blonde head, "Anyway, I told these two new students that came here a few days ago that they could meet you and Zyon tomorrow at LO-RI. So, are you feeling up for it? Zyon said it wouldn't be a problem."

"Eh. I'm fine with that. Just let me figure out what to do with Anya, first." Xion relented. "I just brought her some clothes, so she'll probably be able to go without attracting attention, so I'll have to see."

"Awesome!" Raven said. "I'll see you tomorrow. Later."

Xion watched as his younger friend bounded out of the store. Shortly after, Anya rejoined him, bags in hand.

"Xion, do you know where's a music store at?" She asked. Xion could only nod, wondering if he'd have enough to pay rent later this month at this rate.

/ / /

"So, Xion…where should we go next?" Anya said as she walked a step or two behind Xion as they brushed past crowded city streets in the twilight hours. "You want to get something sweet? I could go for something sweet right now…"

"I'm not exactly a fan of sweet things…" Xion replied as he struggled with the bags of clothes she brought. "But I guess there's an ice cream place in here somewhere. You sure you want to eat this stuff _before_ we have dinner?"

"There's nothing in society's rules that state that ice cream can't be used as an appetizer, Xion." Despite the smile on her face, Xion could tell that she was dead-set on her plan for sweets.

"Alright. Let me put this stuff in the car and I'll pick up some ice cream for you." Xion turned and faded into the sea of people, leaving Anya alone; something that didn't really sit too well with her, but she could manage. It's not like anyone could recognize her in his massive crowded area, could they?

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed someone familiar walking around, a drink in his hand, looking a bit uninterested. None of that would be much interest if it wasn't for the fact that said person happened to be…

"…Rier?!"

Anya's voice was loud enough that Rier came to a dead stop. "Aw, shit…" He mumbled. It was clear that this encounter wasn't intended, judging by that reaction. "Of all the times to come across you, it had to be at the one time that I _wasn't_ trying."

"Good evening, Rier." Her tone was low and slightly irritated, but she remained polite. "What do I owe the pleasure this time around?"

Rier turned around to look at the woman that was his target. "Cut the smartass act, girl. This isn't a very good time for either of us to meet, as you can see." He said, "We stopped looking for you hours ago. I'm merely spending the evening enjoying the sights tonight. Wouldn't want to waste a trip like this stewing on a mattress in a hotel room."

"That may be true, but it doesn't make your current presence any more desirable."

"Maybe. But either way, I can't really do anything to you in front of all these people. Especially with that guy you got following you around…"

"Wha-what?"

"You thought I didn't know? Right after I left, I overheard you talking, so I decided to do a little eavesdropping. Heard about how she was going to send you to some guy's house."

The young girl looked away from him. "He's….He's helping me out. That's all you need to know."

Rier could feel the tenseness from Anya. An idea popped into his head; a risky one, but it may give him the advantage in the future. "Heh. I suppose that's the case then. Just a good Samaritan helping out the poor girl with no home out. But…"

"'But' what, Rier?"

"…Have you told him why exactly you're running in the first place?" The sudden look of shock on her face told him that she'd taken his bait. "Well, maybe you've told him something, but I'm not referring to any vague half-truth you've said to keep him from asking too many questions; I'm talking about cold hard facts here, girl."

"Let's face facts here; no matter how much you'd like to present yourself as an poor, innocent victim who is constantly demonized by people who don't understand her, we both know that you're not nearly as helpless as other people might assume you are." A smile crept on his face as he kept going, "Or are we forgetting the fact that you've killed people with your own hands?"

Anya turned her head away from him, trying to shut his words out. "S-shut up…" She couldn't keep her voice from shaking.

"Maybe I should find Xion and let him know about all your misgivings. There's quite a path of chaos you've left in your wake back in Europe. I wouldn't believe it myself if I'd didn't see the pictures. The way those corpses where mangled up seems almost inhuman. But then again, you're not a normal girl…"

She still refused to look at him, but Rier noticed her hands trembling as she struggled to repress her rage. "What's wrong? Certainly you're not going to try and cut me apart here are you? Not that it would be a surprise; you have so little value for human life that it's almost disturbing. The way you slaughtered those men…"

"_Shut up!_"

Anya head snapped towards him again as she said that. Her eyes suddenly had a bit of an animalistic quality to them; he knew that Anya was close to the edge. "Whatever happened in the past deserves to stay there." Her voice returned to normal. "I've found a place here in this country, and I'm not going to let it be ruined by you or anyone else."

"Not me or anyone else, but what about _yourself_?" Rier continued to taunt her. "Something tells me that he'll find out the ugly truth through your own actions, not mine. Think he'll be so generous when he finds out what kind of monster he let into his home? I doubt it."

Those eyes seem to burn brightly for just a split second. "I will _**end**_ you, Rier…" The sheer hatred in her tone was enough to tell Rier he had gotten what he wanted from her at the moment. He merely shook his head and walked away, disappearing into the ever-growing crowd. With his words still ringing in her head; images of her hand wrapped around his throat flashing in her mind.

_It would be easy, wouldn't it?_ That voice spoke to her from the deepest parts of her subconscious; the part of her mind that she desperately wanted to drown out. _Grab the little maggot and squeeze his neck, letting enough air to hear his pathetic pleas for mercy just before you crush his throat and dropped his lifeless body on the ground. _She cringed at her own sadistic machinations. She wouldn't go to such extremes again, but her mind wanted blood. A small part of her couldn't exactly blame herself for thinking those things.

He called her a monster. She had spent the past four years alienated from nearly everyone because of situations that were way out of her control, yet _she_ was the one who was called a monster. No matter how hard she tried assimilating herself within society, things went to hell. And as always, in the end she was the one with blood on her hands…

"Hey, Anya?"

The young girl turned to Xion, carrying a bow full of strawberry ice cream and looking very concerned.

"Er, sorry. I was lost in my thoughts a bit." She said, her previous worries stuffed into a small part of her mind.

"I would like to believe that…" Xion said, "But it looked like you were crying a bit there. Did something happen?"

Anya blinked, her hand brushing against a cheek. It was wet. "Oh good lord." She muttered, "I must have looked like a lost little girl. I'm sorry, I should have more…"

"You don't need to apologize. It's not my place to ask." Xion interrupted. "Probably just a bad memory or something. Don't worry, I have enough of them to last me a lifetime." He handed her the ice cream. "Here. I hope I picked a good flavor."

The foreign girl stared at the cold concoction before taking it in her hand. "Don't worry," she gave him an appreciative-if not somewhat hollow-smile. "I'm not very picky."

/ / /

"Come on. Burn already."

Zyon sat on the side of his bed and stared into his glove hand as if he was trying to burn a hole in it. Unfortunately, the only thing that was burning was his eyes from not having blinked for so long. It was late in the evening and his sister had already gone to bed, but he wanted to practice a bit before settling down for the night.

"…Shit." He muttered, taking off the glove that protected him from the flame's intensity. "This doesn't seem to be working. There's has to be some way for this to work…"

Shortly after getting home from the tournament (and letting the various injuries he suffered heal), Zyon had gotten back to working on using his own energy to try and make flames without the need for an outside source. So far, all efforts have come up short. There was nothing that seemed to be able to help ignite these flames. Looking back at what happened at the tournament, he was starting to toy around with the idea that actual combat might be the thing to awaken these flames. That was a bad thing for someone who rarely had the opportunity to fight outside of general sparring matches.

_It looks like the best I can hope for is that another tournament is announced soon._ Zyon got up and stretched the tension out of his muscles. _Or I could start fighting people in the streets, but that wouldn't do anything but get me arrested._

"Zyonii…"

His sister's voice broke his concentration. "What is it, sis? I thought you went to bed."

"I did, but I heard you mumbling to yourself in your room." Tera poked her head inside. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Just lamenting my lack of progress." Zyon walked towards the door. "Dumb flames still don't do anything without outside help."

"Don't you think it's time you put that aside, Zyonii." Tera yawned, "You're going to hurt yourself if you focus too hard on that."

"It's nothing for you to be concerned with. It'll come eventually; I just need to find a trigger to this, like I found it with the electricity." Zyon's fingers tapped the doorframe. "I swear, if this ends up being some stupid shit like 'it's fueled by the power of love', I'll probably will have to quit."

"Athena…" She trailed of, before quickly adding, "Have you thought about asking her for help?"

"Eh, I've humored the idea. The nature of my powers doesn't make me very sure she can do it, though." He admitted. "I suppose it wouldn't hurt. But not now, since she has tour stuff to worry about. Anyway, it's time for you to get back to bed, sis."

"Alright…" Tera found herself dozing off again. "Good night, nii-san."

"Good night." Zyon sat down on the bed; the sound of her sister's door closing letting him know she really did go back to sleep.

_Looks like her lessons are starting to pay off._ He was pleased Tera was quite capable of taking care of herself at this point. She'd always wanted to fight like her brother, and while she couldn't use electricity like him, regular Ki stuff seemed to be much easier for her to grasp. With a bit more effort, she might be able to give him a run for his money. _She's certainly has grown._

He lit up the stray cigarette that had been tucked behind his ear and leaned against the window; dull blue eyes staring out into the city lights.

Zyon never did confront her about what happened earlier that day; he didn't want to explain why he'd had followed them and beaten up the would-be kidnapper even further when he was already incapacitated. There was still the idea of who exactly he was, but Zyon didn't want to risk getting spotted by someone who'd call the cops, so he departed the scene as fast as he possibly could.

There was something that was bothering him, though. While he couldn't hear a lot of what was said, he did manage to pick out one name that was very familiar to him…

"…Kyo Kusanagi…"

/ / /

Shikkoku: And another chapter done. We're officially at the halfway point, (or even more than that, depending on how the next chapters turn out, I might be able to hold off on one or two), so stay tuned.

_Notes:_

_- Meet Akane Nakahara. She's, if you couldn't tell, Vio's mother, and she has a bit of an hand on Vio and her reasons for being a young girl in a shady criminal organization at the moment. We'll be seeing bits and pieces of her as this series goes on._

_- Expect next chapter to be primarily more exposition about the SSC, particularly how these four kids end up meeting in the first place (hint: it wasn't a very good first impression for any of them.) Though what does happen will set the tone for the final few chapters._

_- It's been a while since we saw our favorite ice princess? Perhaps she'll be making an appearance soon?_

Per usual, let me know about any oddities you see here so they can quickly be addressed. Legacy of Arthias _should _be updated soon, but that depends on how long it takes me to edit the next chapter, so no guarantees.

Next Chapter: Vio and Haru meet the rest of the SSC, but when Zyon suddenly brings up Yuki's situation, they find themselves in a potentially compromising position. Also, Zyon runs into two people that know him quite well, though he'd never tell anyone.

Until Next Time, keep calm and rock on. Sayonara.


End file.
